[Sca-cooks] Pinch-hitting (was pasties)

[Stefan li Rous]

Aoghann mentioned:
> mollirose at bellsouth.net wrote:
> > Serena is awesome, I understand she stepped up at an event this
> > weekend?
>
> Indeed she is, and indeed she did. Serena had to pinch-hit for me this
> past weekend at Danelaw. On Friday, while trying to finish the  
> shopping,
> my back went out. (Lifted too many 40lb bags of donated bread.)

40 lb bags of *bread*? That seems like they would be awfully large  
sacks. Or did you mean flour? I think you had said you were talking  
about making fresh bread. Some folks did suggest making the loaves  
ahead, freezing them and then baking them onsite. So, I'm curious  
what you finally decided to do. And what type of recipe you used. You  
had asked about breads with oats or non-wheat grains, I think.


> I spent
> the weekend laid out in state. From all accounts, she delivered a
> magnificent meal to the tables and handled the kitchen as if nothing
> unusual had transpired.

So, you didn't even get to attend your own feast?

I hope that Serena will give us a feast report. I had saved your  
earlier feast preview and was waiting to hear the results for a  
Florilegium feast report article.
> She was able to work with 14 period recipes that were new to her, sort
> out the pile of ingredients, identify mistakes in my calculations,  
> adapt
> to ingredients magically disappearing, ovens that kept increasing in
> temperature, a grill that dumped rust from the lid all over the  
> chicken,
> all dropped in her lap with less than 24 hours before serving time.  
> This
> she did not only well, but with grace and humor.

Oooph. If I can get a good report on how she overcame these various  
problems it might be a good addition to my fst-disasters-msg file and  
give folks some ideas of what can happen and how they might recover  
from them.

> Aoghann
> (btw: I passed my doctoral defense yesterday. I was able to stand
> through my presentation, but had to sit for the rest of it.

This was one of the reasons I was concerned when you said you were  
doing both a big feast and your doctoral defense so close to each  
other. I'm happy to see it worked out.

> I am mobile
> now, but moving slow.  I hate growing old, but it beats the
> alternative.)

I hope you're feeling normal in the near future. I've had some of  
this constant pain stuff, and it is no fun. But as you say, it beats  
the alternative. I try to keep that in mind and Kiri's comments about  
celebrating her birthdays rather than mourning them, when I or others  
complain about getting old or pain.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****