At the end of our last installment, I had found the suet. The pudding basin, was still another story. A nice cookie-jar type object had been located, but determined to be a bit narrow. So, after spending the day in bed, work laptop on lap, foot on pillow, and on the network with a wireless card, we took a late evening trip to see what could be ( Read more... )

So, continuing our naval dinner saga, I wrote out the ingredient list yesterday, in long hand. I was tempted to try out my quill pen with a nib from the RenFaire, but decided against it, as my first shot resulted in ink being splattered on the kitchen counter. Right. The long and short of it is that the list isn't too fancy, with a few notable ( Read more... )

So, having talked to Ryan over the weekend and have happily heard from Grace, plans for this weekend look to be quite nicely set!

Here is the menu with notes:
Spotted Dog: need to look into suet and currents, and equipment
Roast Chicken: executive decision to replace chicken livers with more ham
Salt Pork/Virginia Cured Ham: cheat method, perhaps, but ( Read more... )

It looks like the 12th would suit best, though Joe can't make it that day, sadly. He's certainly got something in the morning-afternoon, but maybe the evening? or do I have it backwards? Not sure ( Read more... )

More dinner fun: I recommend looking up things of interest on Amazon.

1.  Pudding must be easy to do - and hopefully not one which has been boiled for 4+ hours (eliminates Plum Duff, sadly, and Christmas pudding ( Read more... )

Popoli, Ryan, I have the cookbook!  Fantastic stuff.  Now to decide a menu....

1.  Pudding, yes
2.  No soussed hog face, please.  And I don't think millers...right.
3.  Drinks?
4.  When?
[Not completely all together this morning.]

While I was travelling this past week from South Carolina and then back north to home, we stopped at two [of the many] Civil War Battlefields, Petersburg and Fredericksburg. sparowe, while at the later, I saw an original letter which would be of interest to you. Sadly, the pictures did by no means come out well, and I could barely salvage the signature ( Read more... )