[Sca-cooks] How was Pennsic?

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/11/2009 10:07:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
phlip at 99main.com writes:

<<So what happened? And I'm not really interested in who won what battles,
> since I'm sure to hear plenty of that on other lists. I'm more interested 
in
> what the weather was like, who did what, did anyone take any interesting
> classes etc.>>
 
As lots of people have mentioned, the first week was wet.  Enough so that 
my 4-year-old said, when asked what his favorite thing about Pennsic was,  
"Our tent stays dry".  It had mostly stopped raining by the first Friday, but 
my husband still got our van stuck in the parking lot that evening.  
Otherwise the weather was lovely and quite cool for Pennsic, and the 97 degree 
weather with high humidity waited until we got home and had to unload everything 
from the trailer.
 
I had asked about peach recipes, and I ended up making a peach tart from a 
recipe called "To make all maner of fruit tartes", from one of the 
Elizabethan sources.  It was mostly the peaches cooked down and mashed, sugar, and 
spices, and it did not solidify while baking, so that we ended up eating it 
out of the crust with spoons.  I'm not sure whether it got baked too fast and 
too hot (quite likely) or if I didn't add enough sugar (also quite likely).  
I know that Elizabethans used large amounts of sugar, and I only put in 
enough to cut the tartness.  I also made Chykkens in Hochee when I realized 
that we didn't have enough wood left nor the skewers needed to do a spinning 
chicken roasted by the fire, and I cannot remember the name of the pork dish 
that I made, which involved browning slices of the meat, then cutting them up 
smaller and boiling them with various herbs, vinegar, cinnamon, and some 
other spices.  I had just finished it when my son fell off his cot and 
dislocated his shoulder, sending us into Butler Memorial for X-rays, so the details 
sort of got shoved out of my brain.  He's been completely fine since 2 days 
afterwards, at least.
 
My favorite class was one called "Circa 1200".  It was done by a couple who 
has developed alternate personas as Yorkshire peasants from 1200, and who 
do demos showing and talking about their lives and what their house looked 
like and such.  They apparently go into schools and everything.  Gave me some 
new ideas for the next time we set up our tent as a "tailor's shop" at a 
demo.
 
Brangwayna Morgan