[Sca-cooks] boy, am I lucky...

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> Goodness! what happened?

Christopher got to see me do my best impression of an attack cook on some
perfectly defenceless autocrats. They violated the 'kitchen space,' poor
things. Several times.

Christopher, of course, did an excellent job of pulling off a very yummy
feast (his first as head cook) and also dealt with ruffled feathers all
around. I was introduced to barley cream, and due to the yummy subtlety,
got to eat my fill of asparagus (ok, it was canned blanched asparagus, but
hey) with savory toasted cheese. I also got to see the use of coolers and
hotters-- 13 chickens, cooked to perfection, wrapped in tin foil and
popped into empty coolers, came out hot enough to sting my hands an hour
and a half later-- and the additional time sealed in the foil packets made
them extra juicy and tender.

The subtlety was cool (Mariota made the center piece, i think)... skewers,
scallions and breakfast sausages (with a green apple base) were used to
make clumps of 'bullrushes' which were surrounded by a 'swamp' of pickles,
olives, blanched asparagus, chickpea salad, and other stuff that I've
forgotten now. It looked really nice and not at all Martha Stewart like,
which is of course one of the dangers with that sort of thing.

Also, everything went out garnished, including the cheese plate at the
end. I notice that we don't tend to garnish things, and it's pretty clear
to me from the recipes that garnishes were used-- perhaps it's fear of
cross contamination or whatever, but food doesn't usualy go out looking
that pretty.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"It is no use telling me that there are bad aunts and good aunts.
At the  core, they are all alike. Sooner or later, out pops the
cloven hoof." -- P.G. Wodehouse, _The Code of the Woosters_