[Sca-cooks] Kudos to the Cooks!

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings!  A simple Twelfth Night event for a Barony burgeoned into a Kingdom Twelfth Night, complete with Royalty and two peerage elevations.  An ambitious menu was planned, centered around the elements of the song "Twelve Days of Christmas".  Then, the Monday (or Tuesday?) before the event, the head cook learned that they could not use the kitchen.  No tables, no prep space, no ovens or stoves, and no running water!  The promised renovations had not been completed.  The call went out for roasters, etc. and the feast came out a tremendous success.  Master Llewellyn and his "can-we-help-you-in-this-crisis?" staff crafted saffron broth (ooh!). The hypotrimma salat (two turtle doves) was presented with cabbage leaves curled over the sides of the bowl to look like dove wings.  The dressing was delightful.  The standing chicken pie (don't eat the side crust!) was exquisitely spiced.  There was a four-and-twenty berry pie that disappeared from our table so fast one might not have known it had been served!  The fruited bread rings were a challenge presented to Llewellyn who admits to trepidation when it comes to bread baking.  His baker had an attack of real life on (Thursday?) and no fifth dish was to be done so Llew "rose to the occasion".  The dishes of fruit compote were each decorated with seven sugar paste swans swimming in the syrup.   The roast goose was...oh, slobber...scrumpdelicious!  Head table got sauces for the goose which we lesser folk did not receive, but we found that the syrup from the compote was a good match.

 By the time the cheese ravioli appeared with the venison sausage, sauteed cabbage and fennel, we were stuffed.  A number of us, after gorging on what we could, had fun playing with the suggestively-shaped sausage and the round-and-firmly-packed ravioli, tastefully decorated with some of the leek topping for the cabbage.  The cheese ravioli was extremely flavorful and we popped buttons stuffing a few more ravioli into our tummies than we really had room for.

The final dishes were pizzelles in a dysshe of snow and sweet cheese torts.  The tortes, while sharply spiced, were a hit with the Viking at our table who ate more than his share of them! The "snow" was so tasty that a noted Countess/Laurel/Pelican removed the decorations (a red apple and green rosemary sprigs) so that she could "lick the dish clean".

Llew's helpers included Angharad ni Ghlais (cheese tortes), Francesca de Onorati (cooking, cleaning, skill!), Gwyneth Banfhidhleir (autocrat and talented cook in her own right), Hauviette d'Anjou (who whips up a mean "snow" plus dances with a sword on her head!), Helewyse de Birkestead (hands, help, talented cooking), Nicholaa Halden (bean cakes), Roewynne Langley (jellies), and Wulfwen atte Belle (sugar paste).  These folk deserve plaudits for pulling off what could well have been a disaster when the kitchen became unavailable.  Congratulations to all!

Alys Katharine, still working off the extra ravioli and "snow"