[Sca-cooks] Gulf Wars Feast Adventure

[Elaine Koogler]

Sounds great! Wish I could have been there.

Kiri

Christine Seelye-King wrote:

>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
>
>
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-- 
Learning is a lifetime journey…growing older merely adds experience to 
knowledge and wisdom to curiosity.
					-- C.E. Lawrence