A Weekend of Many Parts
It was a weekend a many and diverse parts:
1) The prodigal has returned
We brought Dru home from the vet, she was ecstatic to be home (despite being drugged off her little rocker with pain meds) and is healing well. However, Spike (our other cat) has taken to hissing any time he gets within 5 feet of Dru. Something he's never done before. I mean, last time I took them to the vet they shared the same kitty carrier and seemed perfectly happy about it. We're hoping it's just 'cause Dru smells funny due to the pain patch on her side... not sure what to do about it if Spike's decided he wants to be an only cat... It currently makes meal times very problematic. Poor Dru just seems confused when Spike hisses at her. Before her de-clawing Dru was definitely the dominant cat. Dunno... kitty politics. fun, fun, fun.
2) RPGs!
Had a lovely game friday night and got invited to play a superhero game next week! whee!
3) The Tavern Party
I forgot that the eighteenth century tavern party was this weekend, so I got not-so-much other stuff done, but had a lovely time. 'Twas very crowded, the food was delish (per usual :-)) and the conversation wide-ranging (again, per usual :-) ). I wore the same outfit as I did to the Fair at New Boston. I really need to add pockets to the outfit; I have pocket slits, I just haven't gotten around to making the pockets. I might give up and buy them - it's not like they'll be visible. Still need to redo the corset. It still sucks.
4) Dim Sum
What's not to like about that?! :-D
5) Feast Planning, 2009-ish (well sometime in the future, and not likely this coming year)
eestep suggested that if I'm really interested in learning how to feast-a-crat then I should just start planning a feast, and testing recipes. She's even volunteered to help, which gives me the necessary courage :-). So, I'm working on a Spanish feast c.1529 from Libro de Cozina. The order of a feast suggested by the Libro de Cozina is:
Bread
Fruit
Pottage
Roast
Pottage
Stew
Rissoles/Pancakes/Fruit (all referred to as "desert" in the translation)
Libro de Cozina notes that some lords prefur to swap the order of the roast and the stew. What order I'll do it in probably depends on cooking times. I'm thinking I won't be serving in courses, but trying to order the foods finish time by the order given above, and serve when they're ready.
What I'm currently thinking about doing:
1) Bread (Libro de Cozina doesn't talk about the kinds of bread used... so am not sure,
eestep says it's very rare for a period cookbook to talk about bread :-S)
2) Figs in the French Style (a sweet baked figs dish) maybe also some fresh fruit or salad or the ginger applesauce recipe (called "Sauce of Apples") or the pottage of peaches. Depends on how challenging to the modern palate the flavors of the figs are.
3) some sort of green pottage (lots of options, mostly along the lines of cooked spinach, which is amusingly refered to as "A Modern Pottage". It will probably take a full testing session to decide)
4) Roast chicken with cilantro sauce (
eestep and I tested this out for the A&S judges lunch last spring, and I adore the dish :-) so I already have one dish all figured out ;-))
5) Moorish eggplant (or one of the other eggplant or gourd pottages) maybe also an onion pottage if more veggies or just more flavors seem indicated. We'll probably need to re-serve bread with this, as I think the eggplant & gourd recipes resemble baba gounoush in texture, based on the amount of cooking mentioned.)
6) Stewed Mutton (since mutton is hard to get I'll probably do this with lamb - it's basically a sweet pot-roast, although it's cooked in the opposite order from modern pot-roasts - it's stewed and then fried in a honey glaze with dried fruit 'till done)
7) Genovese Tort (a sweet nut torte with dried fruit) or other desert - there's one that sounds like nut and fruit oreos that could be interesting. But right now the fruit and nut torte is my favorite, and could probably be made ahead of time which is a definite plus. Unfortunately the rissoles' all seem to be fried, so using those for desert seems risky; fried foods are much better warm, and they cool off so quickly!)
First I need to test the recipes, then I'll stress about how to do them in a feast kitchen - I mean how many bits of lamb can be fried at once?! And oven and stove orchestration... and how do recipes need to change to make batches of 200? how big is a good serving size based on the rest of the feast? where to get the ingredients in bulk? and ...
Oddly enough, despite every-other recipe in Libro de Curzon having cheese in it, the recipes I've chosen are pretty light in the cheese department :-) I think it's only the options for the 5th course/serving/dish that call for cheese.
5) ummm... sewing?
Not a lot done here... I am very very close to finishing the hose (I got too tired to finish the top hem of the second leg on friday night...) so I'm basically half-an-hour from done there. I've only got 4 more pages of copies to annotate from my obnoxiously verbose victorian fashion plates book. And am half done with the remaining copies-to-be-made for the elliptical and bustle hoop research binders. So, about an hour from moving on to much easier annotation. I plan to be finished with the copying this week, as I discovered there's a Kinkos in walking distance from work, which is much easier then the 20-minute drive from home, provided I'm willing to cart around a much heavier then normal bag to work.
P.S. The news forcasted snow tomorrow. Guess fall is almost over :-( I think I'll pull out my sweaters tonight.