[Sca-cooks] Beverage experiments

Saint Phlip phlip at 99main.com
Wed Feb 13 18:14:07 PST 2008


Well, I'm a pretty severe coffee drinker- but I drink decaf, so I find
it necessary to concoct my own. I can't drink very much caffeinated
coffee, or I get an upset stomach (and a buzz that will keep me awake
for 24 hours- dead tired, but wide awake). Now, I'm perfectly happy to
have beer for breakfast, but it's not usually a good idea, if I'm
running my forge. Hot metal and intoxication can create a nasty mess.

But. I usually manage my coffee, with a pot burbling away on my forge.
Serves a dual purpose- keeps me sober and cheerfully hydrated, while
opening my students' minds to the fact that you can use whatever you
have to provide whatever you want or need. One of the things that
people don't initially comprehend about smithing, is that YOU are the
only important tool in the shop- everything else can be improvised,
worked around, adapted, etc. My little sig, "It's the smith who makes
the tools, not the tools which make the smith." is a very serious
reflection of my attitude. Yes, I like having my forge and anvil, and
stump, and assorted tools- they work well, and I'm comfortable with
them, but I'd certainly be no less a smith if all I had available was
a rock comfortable to my hand, a bigger rock to hit against, a Bic
lighter, some firewood and a desire to turn THIS into THAT. I'd just
be a bit slower ;-)

However, we need to keep in mind that we are civilized folk, and the
place to cook food is in the kitchen, so obviously, to most people,
the kitchen is whewre the coffee needs to come from. And, I think it
might be a bit more disturbing to the event, if, instead of asking the
kitchen for coffee, everyone instead lit a fire, or grabbed a plug
wherever they could find one, so they could provide their own coffee.
I can just see what the site owner might have to say, if we returned
the site to them with a bunch of ash piles in the hall, from people
making their own coffee ;-)

On Feb 13, 2008 7:10 PM,  <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote:
> >>Better to simply ignore their presence, and 'not see' them.<
> >
> > Unless someone has decided to be a complete and total ass
> > (or you are in an Enchanted Ground scenario) they should not
> > mention it anyway.> 'Lainie
>
> It's really hard to ignore the people who invade your event kitchen and
> demand to know where the coffee is. People who want coffee at our events
> are quite willing to interrupt preparations for dayboard or feast to
> demand that we make more coffee for them.
>
> I admit this is a hot-button issue of mine. I HATE Coffee. I really don't
> like it, to the point where the smell of coffee spilt on my belongings
> annoys me all day. I hate making the stuff, and I absolutely abhor dealing
> with coffeemaker leavings. My weak excuse for not making the stuff is to
> admit I make very bad coffee; most mundane people let me off the hook.
>
> I am a caffeine addict; I buy my iced tea or diet cola myself and bring it
> to the event. Being hassled and/or playfully threatened by people who feel
> that they have a god-given right for event staff to purchase, arrange,
> prepare, and clean up their caffeine of choice makes me want to scream.
> For my kitchen staff, I will arrange coffee. As an event steward, I shut
> my eyes, arrange for a coffee making person, and lie back and think of
> Poland.
>
> --
> -- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
> jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
>



-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow



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