[Sca-cooks] my menu for upcoming day event

[Christine Seelye-King]

Your menu sounds wonderful, if a bit ambitious for 4 dollars a head, but it
does make me want to fly to Australia (although I want to do that anyway!)
Here are a few comments:

> Butter (possibly not a period practice but darn it! I *like* butter on my
> bread :-p)

	Perfectly period, except during fasts.  It's Honey butter we can't find any
real documentation for.  I have do have sources for herbed butters,
flavoring butters with essences, and sweet butters including cinnamon and
roses.  Have fun, and don't be ashamed to put out butter!

> The Baroness' is a big one on "properly & artistically presenting food"...
> and wants things in the shapes of the Moon & crabs & other
> "Horoscope style settings"... however she's violently opposed to using
foil to cover dishes
> or cardboard.  Anyone have any ideas on how I could make a
> passable attempt at presentation without it costing me an arm & a leg?
>
> Mari de Paxford

	Hm, you might check out that scroll that was done in the East for a Laurel
that got posted a few months back, it was a celestial map with all the
constellations done on it - with lots of gold leaf for that matter.  Sorry I
can't turn up the url right now, I'm sure someone will be able to provide it
though :)
	As for presentation, cover whatever platters you have with plastic wrap,
paper, even foil (yes, gasp), and then cover all of that with greenery.
Whatever is fresh and local is best (do try not to get those poisonous
varieties, I've heard about the wildlife down under), but rosemary,
evergreens, herbs, grains/decorative grasses, flowers, etc. make great
presentation.  Leaf lettuce is widely used in food service for this, you can
also use purple cabbage or kale, banana leaves, all sorts of things.  The
greenery helps make platters look fuller, too, especially once food starts
being removed from them.
Cloth is another option used in food service extensively - just wrap
whatever the platter is in washable table cloths or large tea towels.
Good luck, it sounds just wonderful,
Mistress Christianna