[Sca-cooks] Pennsic camp food

Louise Smithson helewyse at yahoo.com
Wed Jan 20 05:42:15 PST 2010


Just for fun, what do people eat day to day at War?  I understand that there's a 
pretty good food court at the market, with many of the choices available at more 
modern malls...

I must admit that the food I serve at Pennsic differs from week 1 to week 2. 
My camp is mostly young and consequently poor people, we have a lot of fighters (rapier and heavy). 
The first week we have usually 6-10 people in camp which swells to 30 in the second week.  I charge camp members $30 a week for food, covering breakfast (meat, pancake, egg), lunch (do it yourself ramen or Kraft mac and cheese) and dinner (meat, starch, vegetable), in addition fruit (bananas, apples, oranges), sandwich fixings (bread, peanut butter, jam) and drinks (filtered water, gatorade, milk) are always available.  And yes I manage to do this on a tight budget. The first week I have time to spare, the second week, not so much.  These factors determine what gets cooked. 
I frequently play with my food the first week, I've baked bread in the fire, made Macrows from scratch, invited friends over for a play date and made a whole spread of cool medieval food.  I have made sushi for lunch (all cooked fish), and grilled a whole turkey for dinner.  
The second week it is time for fast and easy and acceptable to a large number, out comes the cheater cottage pie (meat sauce and mashed spuds), the spaghetti, the stews etc.  
I generally keep it under budget by buying in bulk and buying cheaper (less than $3 a lb) meats.  I have to go to town once every 3 days to keep up with food needs and run three coolers in the kitchen.  The meat cooler, the vegetable "safe" cooler (gets cheese and other safe stuff), and a drink cooler. 
Yes it's a lot of work, and I don't tend to make period food the second week, with that many people it is just easier to get food on the table quickly. 
Helewyse


      


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