[Sca-cooks] Attention Adamantius and anyone else....

[kattratt]

Finally a week later...
Well sorry folks I got sick, then Julie got sick, then Kit got sick, 
then John got sick.... shucks I think we even got Karen sick and she is 
in NY.

So ok this was my second feast.  Although it was my first one planned 
and executed by me.  First off I had an incredible kitchen crew of which 
I got 0 pictures of by their request.  ;)
It was Corwyn, Deidre, Meadbh, and myself in the kitchen with my wife 
baking bread at home.  

I wanted to do something that they had not seen as far as I knew as well 
as entertain them.  So we cooked an illusion feast.  (Yes Olwen we got 
pictures of that!!!) But I also wanted us the crew to be able to sit and 
eat with them.  So we had the first presentation (see got rid of that 
course/remove argument quite nicely...)already on the table when they 
came in.  
So first presentation was
St George Vs The Dragon
A Dragon and Knights Helm  (A bread Dragon and an Herbed Butter Molded 
into a Knights Helm)  
BTW George Lost this one..... Side note the dragon is the only thing I 
didn't get a picture of.  (::bangs head into wall::)
This was a non period recipe since my wife was making it I didn't force it.

Trees  Date and Cheese Trees.  Styrofoam cones and balls covered with 
foil put together to make a tree shape and then we attached cheese to 
the cone to be bark, and dates to the ball as the top of the tree. 
 Worked really good to.
 
Ground Olives Don't read that as crushed Olives.... take it literally!!! 
We took marinated Olives, (from the Boke of Goode Cookery Website 
 contributed by Michael Hobbes featured at the Coronation Feast of 
H.R.H. Kenna.) and plated them around the bottoms of the Trees as the 
ground.  Worked well I thought.  

Hattes Small meat filled pastries that resemble hats.  (These have 
nothing to with St. George and the Dragon I just think they are a great 
appetizer and loved the look of them)  SOURCE: An Ordinance of Pottage

Second Presentation Two Meats and a Pig.

Ok the trick here was how to serve veggies that are at least trying to 
not look like veggies.  

Peas in Pods  Leche Lombarde modified.  SOURCE: Forme of Cury  Ok I 
modified this one... I didn't like the look of the meatloaf although it 
tasted great!!! So instead I made the Peas and used grape leaves to make 
the Pods.  It worked and worked well!!!! The Grape Leaves brine even 
added to the flavor of the "peas".   The only trouble I had was getting 
the folks to not eat the grape leaves as the main dish.... (They weren't 
getting the whole illusion thing...) lol.

A Boatload of Sauces  This worked surprisingly well.  We made boats to 
hold the sauce dishes... out of roasted chicken.  Find your own roasted 
chicken recipes out there I know they are there....but we colored the 
boats once they were assembled... and cooked them a bit longer to seal 
the colors... One white one black.  SOURCE: Hansen, Marianne. "And Thus 
You Have a Lordly Dish: Fancy and Showpiece Cookery in an Augsberg 
Patrician Kitchen." Medieval Food and Drink, Acta, vol. xxi. Binghamton 
University: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Roasted Pigs on Forbidden Grounds Ok this was the roast veggies dish.   
we had spaghettie squash bodies, with cauliflower heads, broccoli feet, 
green onions for the tails, and sliced radishes for the eyes and ears. 
 This was an assumed recipe... I assume that they had roasted veggies 
and I tried to avoid modern veggies... although the spaghettie squash I 
wasn't sure of, but they worked so well I didn't care.  The rice I 
cannot claim as period unless one of you all happens to know if 
Forbidden Rice/Emperors Rice is period... but damn those things looked 
so good on that purple rice I didn't care.  

Third Presentation Eggs and Mice

Ok Now this had to have been the coolest thing....
The "eggs" were so confusing to the folks that they were scared to try 
them until I informed them that there was no egg in the dish....
Baked Eggs  Ok we tried to do this recipe first.... Sambocade Cheesecake 
baked into Blown Eggs...  just as an FYI it looks really nasty and 
doesn't work don't try it... (of course if you do try it and it works 
let me know...) so then I scrambled (pun intended) to find another 
recipe... thus all of those questions about the "Eyroun in 
Lentyn"(SOURCE: Harleian MS. 279 ) recipe.  I am pleased to say that we 
tried.... sad to say that it didn't work.  I think it was already to 
late before I asked the list here but thanks for the help.  However we 
modified the recipe and made an almond custard pudding.... well at least 
that is what the wife called it... I personally thought it was a great 
glaze for the mice as it was really sweet and rather yummy but just 
didn't strike me as custardy or puddingey.  Oh well everyone liked it 
though.  

Side note we did end up with a great Almond Bread recipe.... I will 
share that as soon as I wrestle it from the wife...

Mice Baked Pears (SOURCE:Chiquart's 'On Cookery' ) Modified recipe.... 
That recipe was the inspiration for the one we used.... I had so much 
baked stuff that we sauteed them on the stove top instead with cinnamon 
and sugar... garnished with currant eyes and noses, date ears, and their 
own stems for tails and pears make great mice!!!!!!!

Caudell Wine thickened with eggs (SOURCE: An Ordinance of Pottage)  I 
think we cooked this to hot as we ended up with scrambled eggs and 
wine.... or egg drop soup with a wine base.... it was still very good 
though although a little wierd....   I don't think we cooked it 
properly.... we tried to mix and cook at the same time since we were in 
a hurry.... didn't work... but our host was popping in and saying when 
will it be ready when can we seat them....?  So we were hurrying....

Well anyways there is my report I have pictures that will speak 
volumes... but they won't be up until tomorrow....
Take care all
Nichola



CorwynWdwd at aol.com wrote:

>I'll let Nicola fill inthe details, but let me tell you this... it was a 
>triumph.
>
>I feel like a proud Papa <G>
>
>Corwyn
>  
>