[Sca-cooks] My First Christmas Dinner

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

Some of you may remember me saying a few weeks ago that my in-laws were 
coming for Christmas and I'd be cooking my first holiday dinner by myself.  I had 
also asked for suggestions for appropriate medieval foods to include.  Figured 
I'd let you see the final menu.  My mother-in-law, by the way, appeared to be 
extremely pleasantly surprised with the meal.  I think she thought I couldn't 
handle it.

Roast turkey, rubbed with sage, salt and pepper and basted with chicken broth 
for the first basting.

 Stuffing, cooked in the bird, made of torn up bread, salt, celery leaves 
(dried; I wasn't going to buy a whole stalk of celery to get fresh), dried 
parsley, onion, butter, and beaten egg and milk.

Giblet gravy made from the pan drippings and the water from boiling the 
giblets.

Steamed broccoli with a little butter

Spynoches yfryed from Forme of Cury - parboil the spinach, drain it well, 
chop slightly, saute in olive oil and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and ginger

Mashed sweet potatos with butter, milk, salt, and pepper

Ryse of Flessh, also from Forme of Cury - rice cooked in chicken broth, then 
enriched with an almond milk made by simmering more broth, ground almonds, and 
saffron.

My father-in-law brought his homemade cranberry sauce, and my mother-in-law 
brought three plates of Christmas cookies, 3/4 of a "Gourmet Turtle Cheescake" 
and a whole Key  Lime cheesecake.  A few of the cookies got eaten, but none of 
the cheesecake.  When they left, she took back with them half of each of the 
cheesecakes.

Overall quite a successful day.  I was worried, as my mother-in-law is very 
unpredictable and is quite capable of being the world's worst guest (or 
hostess) if she's in the right mood.  Fortunately she was in a good mood yesterday.

Brangwayna