[Sca-cooks] Spring cooking - long

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

We celebrated the Feast of Easter on Saturday night at Fool's War (held in
Macon, GA).  The theme of the event this year was Greek, so we decided on
Greek food, including Red Eggs, a traditional accompaniment to Greek Easter
celebrations.  (We didn't play the game that goes along with it, trying to
crack each other's eggs, I opted for coloring the eggs without their shells
for ease of service and eating).
The menu inlcuded:

Greek Salad - Romain, arugula, capers, cucumbers, lemon slices, and a
dressing of olive and canola oil, red wine vinegar, fresh oregano, fresh
mint, fresh dill, stone ground mustard, lemon juice, honey, salt, pepper,
and granulated garlic.
	I couldn't believe that the huge salad bowl I prepared was emptied by the
end of the night.  It is usually hard to underestimate the amount of salad
you will need for any given dinner, but they plowed through this one.

Ruby Eggs- organic eggs, beet root juice, apple cider vinegar, peppercorns,
cubebs, cloves, bay leaf, red onion, black tea, honey
	I served these in a tall glass cannister in the pickling juice with the bay
leave and a few spices in the juice.  The eggs were beautiful by the time
they were served (they picked up the brown from the tea lots faster than the
red from the beet juice, it took a couple of days before they started
looking better).  I used a long pair of cooking chopsticks stuck down in the
container for a serving utensil, which worked lots better than I thought it
would.

Roasted Org. Baby Root Vegetables - org. baby onions, red and yellow
carrots, turnips, beets, garlic; conventional pearl onions, org. olive oil,
salt, pepper, granulated garlic

Olive Bar - contributions were solicited for this, with the admonition to
"spend the extra dollar and get some GOOD olives!"  The selection included
garlic-stuffed California green, kalamata, nicoise, cocktail, Greek Black
(slightly different from the kalamata), and my personal favorite that I
picked up at the last minute at the Macon Food Lion closest to site,
Orange-stuffed small green olives.  Some standard black canned olives were
also brought by one who only liked that kind, which I pre-approved :)  A
couple of varieties of pickles rounded out the table selection, and an olive
tapanade with water crackers was passed among the diners as we finished
setting the food out for service.

Spanikopita - by THLady Temair.

Donated veggies - spinach salad, marinated asparagus

Hummus - org. chick peas, tahini, org. garlic, org. lemon juice, salt,
pepper

Baba Ganoush - roasted eggplant, org. olive oil, added to Casbah Baba
Ganoush Mix

Celery, Carrots, Cucumbers with Herb Dip - fresh basil, fresh cilantro,
salt, pepper, granulated garlic, organic mayonnaise, Miso Mayo (canola oil,
org. miso, roasted garlic, cider vinegar, tamari, dill, lemon, onion), apple
cider vinegar

Pita, ciabatta rolls, Matzoh (it was still Passover)

And then there was the meat.  Lord Cian brought a large smoker and our Baron
Borgar brought a huge grill.  They cooked lamb a la Maestro nicollo, lots of
garlic and incredibly tender.  I donated a large brisket.  They rubbed my
spice blend for Egrydouce on it Friday night and smoked it for several
hours. It was oh-my-god delicious.  They treated a beef eye of round the
same way.  My protege Seonaid made her family's wedding favorite, Alaskan
Tuna with Tangerine and Chipotle Chutney.  Another oh-my-god delicous
platter of beautiful meat.

The dessert table had - Pyes of Grene Apples - org. apples, org. apricots,
org. raisins, org. butter, raw sugar, org. egg whites, Ceylon cinnamon,
ginger
along with dates, figs, mincemeat pies, cheesecake, and fresh strawberries
with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce for dipping.

What started out as a household dinner quickly became the Baronial party,
which led to feeding our new King and Queen as well. They made lots of
suitably happy noises while eating and as they left (before the Tiki-Light
Bocce got started), His Majesty told me that they had honeymooned in Greece
and loved Greek food, and that this had been fantastic.
I think everyone had a great time, even though Borgar and his partner
totally smashed his lady and I in Bocce - turns out Lourene couldn't see
that well in the dark, but we had fun anyway.
I also played with pies and tarts, but I'll save that for another posting.

Sunday morning was taken up with cleaning and packing.  The kids had the
opportunity to go on an Easter Egg Hunt, but none of them did, there was too
much good food (and lots of chocolate brought by Borgar and Lourene) that
they didn't feel like bothering with a hunt!

Christianna