[Sca-cooks] Ya. It's over. I lived

[Siegfried Heydrich]

    Mine's over too, thank god. My household and the Kiwanis club held our
annual medieval faire this weekend. Attendance was off, we figure around
18,000 or so guests, though after a spat of rain this morning, the weather
was beautiful.
    I did feast for the crew / vendors / wedding guests (our old Seneschal
was marrying one of the Flogger Brothers at the faire) using our cook
trailer and the firepits. I served about 160 assorted drummers, rennies,
merchants, and other ne'er do wells . . . This was NOT an SCA feast - 'twas
all mundane, though weirdly so . . .
    We served fresh (I waited for them to be pulled from the oven at Wally
World) baked french bread & butter with a key-lime cranberry spread that was
also for the turkey, and for salads we had Caesar salad, and a broccoli in
vinaigrette. Both were meat free, just to keep the grazers happy . . .
    For the meats, I had 75 lbs of your basic .98 / lb brisket from Wally
World, 40 lbs of pork blade roast at an absurdly low price, 35 lbs of turkey
breast, and a turducken for the high tables. That's 170 lbs of meat for 160
people. They ate good.
    I put the beef & pork on to smoke w/ mesquite chips at 5 on friday, and
pulled them around 9 the following morning. The meat was just falling apart,
and even after letting them sit for a half hour, they were still falling
apart tender and incredibly juicy. I made a BBQ sauce using a recipe from a
1943 Serviceman's Wife cookbook published at Buckingham field, a local air
strip that was an army training base at the time. The ladies, due to wartime
restrictions, had to be creative. So the main ingredients are OJ, Coca-Cola,
and catsup, all of which were quite plentiful in these parts.
    For veggies, we did acorn squash w/ brown sugar & butter wrapped in foil
then roasted, and your basic parsleyed potatoes. 'Taters, butter, salt,
pepper, parsley. Can't screw it up nohow! Dessert was (surprise!) the
wedding cake. No leftovers, and I am told that several tapeworms were simply
overwhelmed. People have been effusive with their praise, and I just wish
the skinny ones would propose to me on the basis of my cooking for a change
. . .
    All had a really good time, and if y'all know any (quality) merchants
who would like to do a medieval faire in early january (in nice, sunny, warm
florida), we do a good one.

    Sieggy

----- Original Message -----

> Hi all.  The hell feast for 400 is over and among too many tired feet,
> laughter, tears and well wishing, it's finally over and I am safely back
in
> Baltimore.  My daughter asked me to bring her to the library so she could
> check her email so I thought I would too.
>
> So how did things go in the East Kingdom?  Did my surprize get there Puck?
> Did it survive the trip?  Ya gotta tell me all about it!  How was ya'lls
> feast?
>
> Our's was a whopping success.  We got lots of complements and folks
stopped
> anyone they saw with an apron on and said great things.  Master Chirhart
ran
> a good kitchen.  Well done Master!  Thanks for letting me work and play
> there.  Things went pretty smoothly all in all.  Clean up is always a
bit*h,
> but hey, who *likes* to clean up?  We had a few new helpers in the kitchen
> and that is always a nice treat.  Baroness Rowan was there prepping with
us
> and Baron Ivan helped Baron Heinrich, his son Joe, Baroness Barbara and
> Baron Temur and others in scullery duty.  Our servers were spiff thanks to
> Baroness Ekaterina (don't know if anyone else helped) who made up some
nice
> tabbards with our Bright Hills on them.  Very cool. The inspector came
> through and gave us a 100% on his inspection list.  I think Chirhart has a
> story about that.  Baroness Kiri popped in and out of the kitchen to pass
> along words of praise and some 12th night gifts.  She gave me a book of
> recipes from some of her past feasts.  I can't wait to go home, put my
feet
> up, get a glass of wine and open it up to read!  Thank you Kiri!  How
sweet
> of you to think of me.  I shall treasure it.  We had lots of gifts of
> potables which we happily took in hand and tummy.  First thing Friday
night
> while checking into the hotel we ran into someone from Raligh NC who
> presented us with a bottle of Whiskey for the kitchen staff (Chirhart
drank
> it) and it just kept getting wetter!  Wahoo!  The beef was perfect.  The
> venison pies were raved over.  The savory toasted cheese was simply gone.
> The bowls came back with marks where folks had wiped them clean with their
> fingers to get the last drop!  All the bread we served was baked from
> scratch on site, the soft cheese was made on site (there was still a bag
> hanging at the end of cleanup), the butters were molded, the piecrusts
were
> made on site,  I think just about the only thing we had a lot left over of
> was the carrots and parsnips.  We were all tired, most of us were sick
> injured, Chirhart and I both walked into the kitchen, picked up a knife
and
> then stabbed ourselves with it when we first got there (not together) but
we
> did it and now it is all done but the crowing.
>
> All the Arms were arranged on a table and actually looked pretty
impressive
> all arranged together.  I'll get pictures developed maybe tomorrow and
post
> them so you can see.  All the Hats were very surprized and happy to be
> gifted the Arms of their Barony from the Bright Hills Cooks Guild.
> Morningstar made the nicest faux develed eggs in milkjelly and jello and
we
> made up a little relish tray of fauz food for the Queen.  She loved it!
She
> even stopped Morningstar this morning to rave about it.
>
>
>
> Lady Olwen the Odd
> Clan of Odds
> House Blackstar
> Bright Hills Cooks Guild
> Order of the Pearl
> Barony of Bright Hills
> Kingdom of Atlantia!
>
>
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