[Steppes] Hooray for the carollers!

[ED Reese]

Lordy, I hope that's how you spell it....

I'd like to applaud those doughty, talented souls who represented Steppes this last weekend at Old City Park. Despite the wet, and the amplifiers, they went out and did the bardic thing in true style -- something that I utterly chickened out of. :-) (Unlike those souls like Linet who went to the practices and  was laid low by foul, evil flu on the nights. Yes, they went twice -- last weekend. Brrr!)

Well done all you ~! Below is the receipt you all wanted.

Take six to seven clean, hale lemons. Squish them strongly in the method you most favor into a steeping pot -- crock pots are goodly for the purpose. Throwing in the pulp adds to the flavor, if you will strain them out in some fashion when the brew hath seethed to your satisfaction.

Peel a chunk of ginger the length of a man's thumb, whack it into bits, and throw it into the lemon squishings. (A teaspoon of the powdered ginger goes well at this stage, to fire the ingredients.) Add several strong gratings of the naked nutmeg, more if its flavor pleases you, and ply it all with two tea kettles of hot water. (Between one and one half and two quarts.) Add a goodly pinch of salt to point the flavors, then do add about half a cup of fresh honey from your locality. Let the flavors comingle a while -- your nose will tell you when they have begun to come to a jolly fellowship. Stir, taste, and adjust honey at this point, allowing it to merrily seethe along for another hour or so.

Whole cloves bruised would not go amiss in this drink, and mint or healthful rosemary for memory would be a fine addition, as the larder allows. Likewise the cardomom of posset delight might go well for those who favor its aroma and flavor. (You will want to fish the rosemary sprig from the brew, else your well polished throat may discover like unto a pine tree in a wrestling match with its glottis, or parts there about.)

Let seethe as time allows, tasting with a CLEAN SPOON at intervals, and adjusting the ingredients to your taste. (Especially the honey.)

Should circumstances and life styles allow, a shot of Damn Good Whiskey or brisk Rum would thrum it up lively.

HL Esther of Ennis Merth

Who is both feverish and has been reading Elizabethan and Georgian cookery books....

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