[Sca-cooks] 2 feast lunches in 2 weekends - what was I thinking LONG

[Deborah Hammons]

I got to try Crown lunch.  Way wonderful on all counts.   So now, I get to
do Coronation for 250 (they are optimistic) on $5 a head.(Which includes a
lunch in that amount)  Two weeks after Yummier, (all Spanish).  And Yummier
people don't care what I spend, they know I won't kill them. Can I climb
under your rock when I am done?

Aldyth

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Cat . <tgrcat2001 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Greetings the list,
> I still dont have the basement put back in order, but I survived my 2 week
> cooking marathon, and thought I would share.
>
> Currently I head the Baronial Cooks Guild, and in February was asked if the
> Guild would provide lunch at the March Crown Tournament.  I put it to the
> guild
> and after getting 3 replies of "I'll help" I ended up coordinating.  The
> Autocrat and I discussed the venue and settled on 150 as a reasonable
> number of
> bodies and on $5 per for budget.  About two weeks out I discovered that the
> budget had been changed to $3 per head (quite reasonable, but it would have
> been
> nice had I been kept in the loop.)  We adjusted some of the menu (peas in,
> spinach and pork out) and rolled with it (and came in $5 under the $450
> budget.).    Each of the 5 participating guild members chose and took on a
> dish
> and then we combined efforts at the site.
>
> The Crown Tourney Menu: Lentil soup (vegan) Caldo de Lentejas , Bread and
> butter, Beef Stew Roo Broth, Pasta with cheese Macrows, Herbed peas Grene
> Pesen, Cabbage Fennel and Apple salad Cauli Verdi, Carrot sticks Aliter
> Caroetas,  Fresh Fruit, Digby’s Most Excellent Small Cakes, Meringues
> Items were picked from existing sources (specifically excluding German :-)
> with
> the exception of the Meringues which were to use up the egg whites left
> from the
> Digby cakes. (and because folks have come to expect them if I cook)
>
> Items were well received and while there were more persons on site than
> expected
> we still had enough food to have some leftover to contribute to the 'pot
> luck
> feast' in the evening.  (and we were thanked, and complimented on the food
> and
> how clean the kitchen was after we were through.)
>
> The situation became a bit more complicated when 2 weeks prior to crown I
> received an email stating "OH, I thought Gwen Cat was cooking Lunch for
> Baronial
> A&S" (Gwen Cat had asked -because I had wanted to cook this small lunch for
> 50-60 but been told it was covered.)  So with one week to go I negotiated a
> budget ($150) assembled a menu (all from Rumpolt - hey with 6 days I am
> doing
> what I can do almost in my sleep)  Thankfully Ranvaig has her transcription
> and
> translation searchable so I coordinated with her and filled in the blank
> spots.
> I have been wanting to make the stuffed cabbage for years, and finally had
> a
> chance.    Having seen the Rice Pudding fryed recipe that Ranvaig had
> translated
> I really wanted to play with that, and did a test batch of that as well as
> 3
> different grain options to take to fencing practice the Wednesday before.
> The
> fencers got to try 'door #1, Door #2 and door #3 (chick peas, millet, oat
> groats) and offer their favorite before being handed a slice of the fried
> rice
> pudding.. they all agreed "door #4' was worth being a guinea pig for the
> others
> :-)
>
> The A&S Menu: Split pea soup with onions (vegan); Stuffed Cabbage or (we
> had
> enough for both rather than or) Chicken with Parsley; Millet cooked in
> broth, Radish Salad, cucumber salad, Pickled beets, Rice pudding fritters,
> Fresh
> Fruit
>
> I took the Friday before as a vacation day to shop, pack, and prep 150
> meatball
> sized cabbage rolls.  Got to bed at a reasonable hour and was almost ready
> to
> walk out the door on Saturday morning when I get the phone call "THE STOVE
> IS
> GONE!!!!!"  (Now, I had a really funny feeling about the site and had
> chatted
> with the autocrat and said "please make sure the site is as I remember it,
> with
> a kitchen that has a standard 4 burner 1 oven home stove"  and had gotten
> back
> "yes, we have the kitchen"  )  I made 6 frantic phone calls, finally
> reaching my
> much loved apprentice who was running late and so grabbed her 2 burner
> propane
> camp stove.  I put an extra roaster (I have 2) and my rice steamer and 2
> crock
> pots in the car and got to site.
>
> Apprentice stayed outside (thankfully the weather was reasonably nice)
> managing
> the stove, and another gal had her husband bring their indoor propane
> burner and
> spent over an hour frying the rice pudding fritters.  ALL the rice pudding
> was
> eaten (folks lay in wait looking for the next batch to come out of the pan)
> and
> there was one scoop of pea soup, and about a dozen cabbage roll balls left,
> ah
> and more of the radishes than I liked, but no cucumbers. I think more salt
> less
> oil next time.
>
> According to the feedback I got both lunches were successful.  My favorite
> comment was "you hit another one out of the park" followed closely by "you
> have
> restored my faith in feasts"
>
> Lessons learned:  Always always check the site!  Campstoves are your
> friend.
> People will eat cabbage rolls and pea soup.  Pan fried rice pudding ROCKS!
> Folks will eat less lentil soup when there is beef stew available (one
> young man
> came back 4 times to get more beef stew.) If the autocrat publishes an
> arbitrary
> serving time it is acceptable to say "no, we will be able to serve between
> 12:30
> and 1:00, not at 11:30, please plan accordingly."
>
> Drop me a line if you would like the PDF menu booklets for either meal.
>
> In Service
> Gwen tired now Cat
> Caerthe, Outlands
> PS the A&S lunch was brass bowl, and we recovered the initial cost and made
> a
> nice profit for the event above that cost.
>
>
>
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