[Sca-cooks] Merry Xmas to Me

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Anyone else get themselves a treat (that the rest of the world would
be like Huh? why are you excited about that?)

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva


My big Christmas present to me (from Santa and Mrs. Claus :) is a honking
new computer.  I will pick it up tomorow, but it will have to wait until I
am back from Miami to get installed.  My sweetie is springing for DSL for
the year for me, so I will be launched into the 21st century very soon.

He also gave me a Schlemmertopf clay baker for Christmas, which is actually
a piece of cooking equipment that I do not own and am likely to use, a
fairly amazing thing.  There is a recipe for salt-roasted potatoes with
fleur de sel that we do in a class at Viking in a Rommertopf, and I am happy
I'll be able to do it at home now :)  My sister and niece sent a bottle of
what looks very much like raspberry preserves, with a label that says
"Picked and bottled the same day" (but no indication of what it actually
is).

At the Viking Christmas party I scored a lovely new large stainless mixing
bowl, a fancy stainless-handled rubber spatula, a copy of "Cookwise" by
Shirley Corriher, a bottle of Viking Brand olive oil, a nice folding
corkscrew, a Madagascar Vanilla bean, and a box of chocolate (I passed by
the opportunity to select the chocolate Santa with a large erection  :o  ).
I also picked up a white knit glove.  Everyone wanted it because we all
thought it was a thermal glove or maybe a teflon glove, but no, it is simply
a single white knit glove.  I can re-create Michael Jackson's Pepsi
commercial maybe?

In a rather strange turn of events, said sweetie was shopping on the 24th
for last-minute stuff, while I was home with Santa getting ready for our
last couple of appearances.  I get a phone call from sweetie (Colin), saying
"Here, talk to someone you know".  A new voice on the phone says "Merry
Christmas - it's Rhonda!". This new voice belongs to none other than Rhonda
Contreras, once known far and wide as Mistress Mistress Duchess Rondallyn of
Golgotha, my former neighbor, Baroness, peer for my late husband, etc.  She
now works at a Borders Bookstore in Athens, GA, where sweetie happened to
find himself in the history section trying to figure out a book I might like
and do not have.  They started talking about what he might be looking for
and he commented on her knowledge of things historical, he mentioned Pennsic
(probably because he couldn't remember "SCA" - he is such a muggle), she
said: "Oh yes, I've been", he then said: "Do you know Christy?" - one thing
led to another, and I get this call.   I gave him a hard time for picking up
strange women in bookstores, and both she and I said she was one of the
strangest he could find!  She is also a Master Gardener, and when she asked
about books I might like and I said "anything by Michael Pollan", she did a
very fine job and selected "Second Nature - A Gardener's Education" for me.

 Other goodies include a box of fireworks, the "Women of Norseland" calendar
that just arrived along with the Chik-Fil-A "Cows in Armor" calendar (both
of which I bought for myself), a book on Picasso, pictures of my great
grandparents from my sister which arrived as a box of broken glass (not just
everyone gets a box of broken glass from their sister at Christmas - I'm
very special), and a stick-on mermaid for my truck from the company that
does Darwin Fish.  Last year felt like coal and switches all season long,
this year I feel like a kid back at my mom's house. (Mom liked wrapped
presents so much she'd take things apart and wrap the pieces :)

So, a pretty swell haul for me this year, lots of fun stuff.  Nothing even
close to period cooking, but I haven't been doing much of that lately, so
it's all good.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas (to heck with the whole "happy
holiday"/"merry Christmas" mess), and got more period goodies than I did!
Christianna
off to celebrate a Carribean New Year!