[Sca-cooks] My first feast (LONG)

[david friedman]

>I had major timing problems.  The first course was less than an hour behind=
>  schedule - could've been worse.  It was the fault of the oven, which refus=
>e to heat up :-(  Thinking myself a medieval Martha Stewart, I'd expected t=
>o have the leisure time to carve a half-dozen little radish roses as garnis=
>h for the lentils...yeah, right ;-p  Also wanted lemons for the fish, but f=
>orgot to bring them.  And I forgot about the fava beans, so they had to go =
>out with the second course.

Did you do any of the prep in advance? We generally do things like
chopping onions or the equivalent at a work party the evening before.
Of course, that requires that you have the people to do it and access
to a kitchen.

>I was also reminded of how much I HATE cooking on electric ranges
>- those things are evil!

Long ago and far away we had a kitchen with two stoves--electric for
Elizabeth, gas for me. Mine was a Chambers--the equivalent of an
antique Rolls Royce.

>  I couldn't send out much bread=
>  because I hadn't bought quite enough, and wanted to save some for the last=
>  course.  Idiot that I am, I forgot to send it out later in the evening, an=
>d much to my mortification, during clean-up discovered
>several loaves of which I had deprived my guests :-(  It was excellent
>bread, and I feel intensely stupid for being so stingy with it.
>
>I forgot to buy caraway,

We generally try to make sure we, or someone available to us, knows
where the nearest grocery store is, so that we can send out at the
last minute if something is missing. I'm not sure how practical that
would have been, given your location.  Bread is a good way of
expanding at the last minute to meet an emergency.

>I felt
>awful that things were so off schedule, but everyone told me, "Don't worry,
>that happens at EVERY feast."

Not every feast, but not uncommon.

>(in money AND in time -
>never, ever again will spinach or fava beans go on a menu in such
>quantities!!).

Spinach is one of the things where we concluded that the savings from
buying in bulk didn't make up for the time cost in washing it;
nowadays we buy washed spinach.

In any case, I enjoyed the feast, and my impression was that my
fellow guests did too.
--
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/