[Sca-cooks] a small meal, need additions

[iasmin at comcast.net]

Kiri wrote:

> I've found that the "carrot salad" from "Dining with William 
> Shakespeare" to be quite good, refreshing and very popular
> ...and easy to make!!!

That's a nice idea and easy is definitely good. I'll test it out and see how I like it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Johnnae also contributed:

> What comes to mind would be a selection of flatcakes 
> and griddle cakes like oatcakes or barley cakes?

That would be an idea I hadn't considered. I think my brain is stuck in the modern world where pate is servedon small toasts. :) Shame on me. I should know better. You did some oatcakes for the Royalty Luncheon for the Cornation of Pieter and Nan Astrid last spring, did you not?

> Maybe a bowl of pickled something plus a bowl of 
> quality olives ?

Definitely an idea on both counts. My brain is only remembering pickled veggies in general (like a garbage recipe) or pickled beet roots from Rumpolt. The only pickled cucumber recipe I can recall off the top of my head is a menu item from a Japanese Chanoyu meal and that's not a recipe at all. I should look for an actual pickled cucumber recipe though that vegetable is hardly in season at this time of year.

> Cheeses? Soft cheeses made at home perhaps?

I think cheese is an excellent idea, but I'd be inclined, I think, to aim for a harder cheese because of the softness of the pates so far. I'd like a variety of textures but there's not enough time to actually make a hard cheese in the next few weeks (at least not to my satisfaction, as I've never made a hard cheese). I do, however, have access to an absolutely fantastic cheesemonger in town and could easily pick up a few artisan cheeses from them (just tried a wonderful porter-laced one that darn near became our whole dinner last week; I should know better than to grocery shop while hungry).

Thanks for all the help, folks. I'll still happily take more suggestions if you have them. Nothing's set in stone so far.

Iasmin