[Sca-cooks] Gulf Wars Feast Adventure

[Christine Seelye-King]

I went to my very first Gulf Wars this weekend.  A friend (Mistress
Christina O'Rian) and I stayed at her in-law's cabin 30 minutes from the
site, so no camping fuss or muss, it was great.
We were invited to dinner at some friend's camp for Friday, but when we got
there the cook had left for a work emergency.  So, I volunteered to cook -
what else could I do?  The cook in question (who is still really
unnecessarily embarrassed and so will remain unnamed :) had planned a
beautiful week-long period menu for the camp, but had planned on bringing
Friday's ingredients in later, so the whole pre-existing plan got scrapped
and I went with the contents of the camp kitchen's coolers: a WHOLE LOT O'
FOWL™ - 10 pounds of chicken breasts, 5 pounds of legs, and 4 cornish game
hens.  Also two smallish beef bottom round tips, 3/4 # of a Jimmy Dean
sausage, 12 ounces of thick-sliced bacon, mushrooms, lots o' cheese, 4 large
and 14 small tart shells, lots of dried fruit, "boxo" (boxed wine, this
flavor was a rosé), lots of baby carrots marinaded with whole coriander,
stale bread, and a gallon ziploc filled with small baggies full of whole
medieval spices.
I took the coolers and the spices home, created a menu, sent Christina
shopping, and cooked for 10 of the next 17 hours.  Here is the menu I
served:

Seymé of Hen - various fowl parts oven-roasted, then served with a sauce of
onions, chicken stock, wine, cardamom, long pepper, ginger, and breadcrumbs.

Stuffed Beef Roast - spiral-cut beef with a stuffing of sausage,
breadcrumbs, an egg, long pepper,  marjoram, cubebs, and brown mustard seed;
wrapped in bacon and tied while roasted.  Served sliced thin at room
temperature with:
Barbe Robert - butter, ground brown mustard seed, scallions, vinegar

Carrots and Parsnips - boiled in chicken stock with cardamom. Oh, god, were
these good.

An Excellent Boylt Salat - spinach, currants, vinegar, sugar, cooked
lightly.

Mushroom Pasties - sliced button 'shrooms, salt, black pepper, gr. brn
mustard seed, cheese, egg, tart shells.

Dried Fruit Compote - apricots, dates, currants, cherries, raisins, orange
juice, rosé, nutmeg, mace, and ginger stewed and mounded on small sponge
tart shells, sprinkled with a toasted oat and chopped almond topping.
Served with a choice of creme freche or vanilla yogurt.  I ate 3 (urp).

Mead (I had brought this and drank the lion's share of it)

The Cook had left a notebook with the menus and recipes, plus a few others,
which is where I found the basis for the Seymé of Hen and the Pasties.  The
rest came out of my head, about half of which I know I can document.  We got
the dining area set so the camp could eat a big meal together for the first
time, before they had been taking dishes back to individual chairs, this was
set as a long table with candles, cloths, and atmosphere.  It was lovely,
and all had a wonderful time and gave rave reviews of the grub.
I also shopped, did Populace A&S judging (cooking entries were vinegar and
really good bagels, plus an Herbal Treatise that got my vote), attended the
Known World Party (does Ansteorra eat anything except Chili?), and had a
nice time chatting with friends.  I got to meet Master Huen, and bought some
really nifty cookies from him that I have yet to taste, they are too pretty
to munch on, they deserve a nice sit-down tea.
The weather was great, for which I am extremely thankful.
And that's what I did on vacation. :)
Christianna