[Sca-cooks] Happy Holidays....

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Maire told of her holiday cookery and her loot...

What we cooked:  a 20+ pound turkey in the oven [Alton Brown's brining 
process with Morton Thompson's spice mixture], an equivalent mass of 
marinated tri-tip beef on the BBQ [with some help from grillmaster Lord 
Joan], turkey dressing from scratch [ripped-up dry sourdough rolls, 
celery, shallots, spices and turkey stock frozen after Thanksgiving], 
green bean casserole [pretty standard, made with Cream of Celery soup 
though 'cuz we had one guest with severe mushroom allergy], Baroness 
Morgaine's soon-to-be-famous[ if she can reproduce it] crockpot of yams 
and sweet potatoes and apples with cranberries. Danish Rice Porridge and 
I got the Almond, hooray!  Taters and peas that other people brought. 
 Jared's pecan pies, v. good.  None of the TV mincemeat was left after 
Angels Yule, how ironic is that?  A reasonably traditional Christmas 
Cake with raisins and dried pears, all the dried fruit I had left after 
burning the first one.  <blush>  OK, I have had attention span problems 
lately.

Hot spiced cider, hot spiced wine, variety of soft drinks, eggnog.  

Next week for the noon-to-midnight New Year's LotR EE marathon I have 
declared that I Am Not Cooking. Other people can bring stuff.  Lots of 
leftovers exist, including half the turkey, spiced apples, the nachos 
that never got made, etc.  I may bake some shortbread and wrap it in 
leaves but that doesn't count, does it?

Loot:  a seal-a-meal gadget that seals up your food without air into 
plastic bags suitable for freezing and later boiling.  Just in time for 
Estrella War!  A couple-three cookbooks, none of them SCA period 
oriented.  Loot I gave out:  pillows made of a fabric featuring a print 
of many foxes, particularly since my maiden name is Fox this is 
appropriate for my parents and brother.  The colors co-incidentally 
matched my parents' living room, a real stroke of luck since I didn't 
pick out the fabric, it was a gift from another SCA person.  I will do 
this pillow thing again, everybody loved it!

Happy holidays, Selene