[Sca-cooks] Home from Phoenix

[Christine Seelye-King]

	Well, I finally re-subscribed to the list, we've been home for a week, but
it took us a while to recoup.  Phoenix was very hot, although we did manage
to bring some humidity with us in the form of rain while we were there.
Since it had been six months since they had seen any, we thought about
charging for it!  We even had a tornado on Saturday, right about the time
they were evidently fighting Aten's Crown in the mud (an unusual situation
for them, it seems).
	We worked our butts off, made almost enough money to pay for all the
expenses of the trip and the moving van, and managed to get the condo
cleaned out in time for us to leave and catch our plane.
	Dinner on Monday night with Gunthar and Selene was wonderful.  Tuscan
peasant-style wilted greens with tomatos and bread crumbs, roasted lamb with
root vegetables, crusty bread, and an almond hazelnut torte with fresh
strawberries and mostly whipped cream for dessert.  (Sorry, Gunthar! - he
was having troubles with the whipped cream...)  The meal and the
conversation were just great, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Niccolo
asked me about dinner when I saw him at our Coronation last weekend, and it
struck me as funny that people all over the world knew what I had for dinner
last Monday night.  Ain't the internet grand?  After dinner, we brought
Gunthar out to our car and had him puruse the kitchen appliances in the
trunk of our car, kindof like "Hey, Mister, you wanna juicer?"  We were
pleased to have the crock pot find a new home, I'm sure it will surround
many tasty dishes.
	We also got a chance to see the spectacle that is a fighter practice out
there.  Roughly 300 people or so, and we were informed that it was a light
turnout due to it being the Wednesday before Crown List.  We had dinner with
some folks at Friday's afterwards, and it was very nice to be in such a
familiar atmosphere with new SCA folks, and have it seem so much like meals
we've eaten with our long-time SCA friends.
	We had fajitas one night at a place named "Fajita's", they were pretty
good, but the periodic
waiters-badly-singing-happy-birthday-and-popping-balloons routine got old
really quickly.  I was reminded of old west movies where everyone shot
pistols up into the air whenever something of note was happening.  We ate
really wonderful burritos at a place called The Blue Burrito at of all
places, the Phoenix airport.  We tried three different Chinese places, and
the third one we really liked, but I did notice that the red pepper flakes
found thier way into many more dishes and sauces than we usually see here.
Wonder why? ;)
	I also discovered Trader Joe's, and wish we had them here.  I really liked
the things they had packaged just for them, and as we had sold the plates,
flatware, pans, etc., having prepared meals that we could just heat up and
eat were wonderful.  I also bought 6 cans of the smoked trout and packed
them to bring home.
	We took delivery of the moving van Tuesday, and now my already full house
is packed with more furniture and boxes until we can have the yard sale next
weekend.  I came home with three boxes of kitchen equipment from my dad's
kitchen (electric wok, two fondue pots, tupperware, half again as many
knives as I already had, bread machine, salad spinner, etc.), not to mention
the 5 cases of china that I finally claimed.  Where is it all going?  (my
lord asks regularly, I don't have an answer yet...)
	This forces us to go through everything we have and re-evaluate it's
usefulness, an exhausting process at best.  We are also under a time
limitation for a few reasons, the yard sale next week, our Barony's 30th
anniversary event on Oct. 5th, and my back surgery on the 11th.  It's all
got to get done or at least minimally dealt with before then.  Hoo boy.
	So, while I haven't been cooking much recently (except for the test feast
right before I left), I have been eating out a lot, luckily with pretty good
results.  Once I get the chance to assimilate everything I brought back with
me, I'll have an even better stocked kitchen than I started out with (not
inconsiderable), and hopefully I'll be able to get back to cooking real
soon!
	Glad to be back,
	Christianna