[Sca-cooks] if you're bored...

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> Looks really good, a very good introduction and more, lots of detail.  The
> only thing I have a question about is maybe you didn't finish the sentence
> "No hot spices, but thyme or parsley  ..."  at the end of 'In Summer:' under
> 'Sauces and humors'.

Thanks! The class went pretty well, after a slow start. (Attendees
commented to me later that people seemed reluctant at first to speak up
and participate).

I talked a little bit about sauces and about the process of redacting,
then we redacted the pepper sauce as a group. Once we had mixed it up, we
passed it around and tasted it-- everyone agreed that it needed more
pepper, so we added pepper.

Then, I divided the 19 students into 4 groups and had each group work
through one of the 4 sauce types. I wanted them to work with the recipe in
bold (though there was one holdup when I realized I'd given the wrong
recipe for garlic sauce as the one to try!). They figured out what they
needed and came 'shopping' in the supplies I'd bought, then got tools and
put together the sauces. Then we all tasted them, and at the end of the
class brought them down to be used as part of the potluck dinner.

Mistakes I made-- I didn't bring any knives, nor enough mortar & pestles
(at least 4 were needed, and I only brought 2).  I also didn't bring
enough spice grinders-- 2 would have been optimum. Larger bowls would have
encouraged the class members to make larger servings. Handing out cards
for students to write down the ingredients as they made the sauces would
have helped. I think it would also have been helpful to have a 'lab
assistant' to circulate around the class to help. Now that I have a better
idea about the timing, I will be more relaxed about the first part of the
class; I was afraid we weren't going to have enough time for the group
projects and hurried through the introduction.

All in all, though, it went well, and encouraged me in my use of 'active
learning' techniques in the SCA classroom.

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians
are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides." --James Quinn