Psge-East-Fst-art

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Psge-East-Fst-art - 3/21/01

Menu, review and recipes for the Passage to the East III event in the Canton of Falcon Cree, Barony of Nottinghill Coill in November 2000.

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Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 20:17:17 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 1

I served as head cook for Passage to the East III in the Canton of

Falcon Cree, Barony of Nottinghill Coill, Atlantia last weekend. The

event was recreating the date of September 26, 1490, the celebration of

the Festival of Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of the Medici family in

Florence. My primary references were Milham's Platina and Scully's

Cuoco Napoletano, although I also used Santich and others for

supplemental information. I also generated a handout which informed the

feasters of the effects of the food they were eating {taken from

Platina}.

Things that went right: the site itself was almost perfect for this

event, the feast totally sold out (136), it came in under budget, the

portioning worked out almost perfectly {everyone went away filled up but

very few leftovers}, I had a great kitchen crew, and the post-feast

reviews were positive.

Things that could have gone better: a long story. The event was held

at a VFW Post with a new Post Commander who was convinced we were

Communists who would steal the silverware and pillage the pantry if he

didn't stand in the corner of the kitchen glaring at us with his arms

crossed and a cigarette dangling from his lip all day {the only time

"Commander Charming" showed a sense of humor was when he introduced his

wife as his "Commanding Officer for the past 42 years." What a riot!}.

Every time you turned around, he was underfoot.

When we were trying to set up Friday night, the VFW folks were having a

party with a band {nothing like "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" to

put you in the mood for a medieval event} and grilling steaks, so we

couldn't get into the kitchen. We weren't allowed into the building

until 10 am Saturday; when we finally got in, they had thoughtfully left

us all their dirty dishes in the sink for us to wash. So, we didn't

have the greatest working relationship with the site.

The other problem was the weather. Halfway through the feast, it

started sleeting, with a later chance of snow. The Queen lives in the

mountains of North Carolina and wanted to get off-site ASAP, so we had

to dish out the remaining food pell mell. It also meant that half the

clean up crew bailed out to beat the weather. By 11:30, it was me and 2

pre-teen girls doing the last of the clean-up.

As to the feast itself, it went as follows {I don't read Latin, so there

are probably horrendous grammatical errors, but I won't have a snit if

someone corrects them!}:

I. AQUA ODORIFERA ALE MANE

{Fragrant Water for Washing Hands}

II. MALIS UVAM IUGLANDE ET AMYGDALIS

{Apples, Raisins, Walnuts, and Almonds}

PANE ET BUTYRO

{Bread and Butter}

III. ESCICIUM EX CARNE

{Meatballs}

CONDITUM PANTODAPUM

{Seasoned Salad}

IV. GALINE HO CAPONI CUMSUO SAPORE

{Chickens or Capons with Their Sauce}

VERMICELLI

{Pasta}

V. CARNERO CUM BRODETTO ET RISO

{Mutton with Thick Broth and Rice}

TORTA BULIGNESA

{Bolognese Tart}

VI. PORCELLO

{Roast Pork}

BRODO NERO PER PIATTI X

{Dark Sauce for 10 Platters}

VII. PIRUM IN TORTA

{Pear Tart}

NUCATO

{Honey-Almond Candy}

PISTACIIS

{Pistachio Nuts}

I'll break the recipes down into several postings.

John le Burguillun

Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 09:05:49 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 2

Recipes from Passage East III. For the citations, "P" refers to the

Milham version of Platina and "CN" to the Cuoco Napoletano. Feast was

for 136 (17 tables of 8).

I. AQUA ODORIFERA ALE MANE {Fragrant Water for Washing Hands}

No recipe, but it appears at the beginning of all 5 feast menus in the

CN {and frequently there was a 2nd handwashing mid-way through the

feast}. I used lavender because I had plenty already on hand and I

thought I had documentation of it being used for this purpose, but I

can't find anything now. I steeped a couple of gallons of boiling water

with about 2 cups of dried lavender. Each server was given a bowl with

about 3 cups of warm water and a towel to take around the table.

II. MALIS UVAM IUGLANDE ET AMYGDALIS {Apples, Raisins, Walnuts, and Almonds}

Apples {P II 2}, Nuts {P III 1}, and Raisins {P II 4} were all cited by

Platina as appropriate foods for the first course. For each table, we

sliced 1-1/2 apples {combination of red and green for color contrast,

don't remember specifically which varieties}, a cup of raisins, and a

cup of each of the nuts. The nuts and raisins were mixed in a bowl with

the apple slices arranged around them. We had less than a quart sized

ziplock bag's worth of the raisin/nut mixture return to the kitchen.

PANE ET BUTYRO {Bread and Butter}

I got bread from a small local bakery that uses no preservatives in

their goods. Their loaves are incredibly dense and weigh 2 lbs each. I

got 8 loaves of their wheat bread and 3 loaves of black bread. They

were pre-sliced, then we sliced them again down the middle to get about42 pieces the size of a deck of cards from each loaf. They were put

into wicker bread baskets, making sure that each basket had a mixture of

the 2 breads. That worked out to over 3 slices of bread per person,

which I thought was going to be sufficient. Each table also got a stick

of butter. I could have bought more, because some people came to the

kitchen and then went scavenging other tables in search of leftovers,

but by the time the feast was over they were sufficiently stuffed.

I've got to get to work, will pick up with 3rd course tonight.

John

Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 21:05:33 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 3

Picking up from where I left off...

III. ESCICIUM EX CARNE

{Meatballs}

P VII 50

For ten guests, boil a pound of pork belly or veal belly well. When it

is cooked and cut up, add half a pound of aged cheese and a little fat,

and mix with fragrant herbs, well cut up, pepper, ginger and cloves.

Some even add breast of capon, well pounded. When these have all been

worked with meal and reduced to a thin sheet, roll into balls the size

of a chestnut. When rolled, cook in rich juice and color with saffron.

They require little cooking. When they are transferred to serving

dishes, sprinkle with ground cheese and rather sweet spices. It is also

possible for this food to be made from breast of pheasant, partridge, or

other fowl.

Per Table 17 Tables

1-1/2 lbs ground pork 25 lbs pork

1 cup mozzarella, shredded 17 cups cheese

1 tbs bread crumbs 1 cup crumbs

Herbs {1/8 tsp of each} {2 tbs each}

pepper

oregano

ginger

basil

marjoram

pinch saffron 1/8 tsp saffron

1 cup broth 17 cups broth

1/4 cup parmesean cheese 4-1/4 cups cheese

1/4 tsp basil 1-1/2 tbs basil

1/4 tsp marjoram 1-1/2 tbs marjoram

Combine pork, mozzarella, bread crumbs, and herbs into small balls the

size of a chestnut. Cook in saffron broth at medium heat approx. 8-10

min. or until done. Sprinkle with parmesean and additional herbs.

Yield: 16-20 meatballs.

COMMENTS: The combination of pork, cheese and herbs in broth made a

very mild but flavorful meatball. Not a single one made it back to the

kitchen alive.

CONDITUM PANTODAPUM

{Seasoned Salad}

P IV 5

There may be likewise a seasoned salad from lettuce, borage, mint,

calamint, fennel, parsley, wild thyme, marjoram, chervil, sow-thistle,

which doctors call taraxicon, lancet, which they call lamb's tongue,

nightshade, flower of fennel, and several other aromatic herbs,

well-washed and with the water pressed out. They need a large dish.

They ought to be sprinkled with a lot of salt and moistened with oil,

then after vinegar has been poured over and when they have sat for a

little while, their wild toughness demands eating and chewing well with

the teeth. This dish requires more oil and less vinegar {medicinal

advise omitted}.

I used 1 head of lettuce per table, using whatever varieties I could

find {other than iceburg which hardly qualifies}: red leaf, green leaf,

Boston, endive, etc. I added fresh mint {peppermint was all I could

find fresh}, fresh thyme, fresh parsley, and dried chervil, marjoram,

and borage. I added a little salt, then commercial olive oil/red wine

vinegar salad dressing.

COMMENTS: Too much salad came back. Probably only needed about 13-14

heads of lettuce. However, several people commented that they liked the

impact the herbs had on the salad.

Part 4 will be forthcoming. First, I want to apologize to anyone I

offended with my comments about the VFW Post Commander. I was

frustrated because I arrived from 95 miles away to spend the day with

someone who kept checking to make sure I was using my own supplies and

not taking their food or using their pots and pans. After a while, you

get tired of being treated like a suspect. I tend to have a caustic

sense of humor and mentally dubbing him "Commander Charming" was my

silent way of dealing with his too frequent visitations. I meant no

disrespect to the VFW or any similar organization.

John

Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 08:51:02 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 4

This is where the wheels came off slightly... Because of the compressed

amount of time available and the competition for oven space, I didn't

use whole chickens. The stove had a grill attachment {about 3 x 2}, so

the plan was to use boneless chicken breasts and grill them, then

slather the sauce on after they were cooked {I also had someone deathly

allergic to nuts who I wanted to make sure wouldn't be endangered by her

chicken coming into contact with the sauce}. The chicken breasts would

be on a platter and the pasta in a bowl with all the cheese and spices

on it.

However, I made a mistake. I bought boneless, SKINLESS, chicken

breasts. They started drying out and crumbling up on the grill.

Luckily, one of the other cooks has a huge assortment of cookware {he

has a true portable kitchen that fits in a trailer, sink and all,

although he didn't bring it for this event}. Bruno got out his "Wok

>From Hell" (TM), a commercial size wok, set up a gas burner, and we

sliced the chicken into smaller pieces and cooked them in the wok. The

good news was that they cooked well without further damage; the bad news

was that they now looked like "Kibbles and Bits" {a brand of dog food

for those of you outside the US}. Definitely unappetizing to look at.

So, we improvised. The pasta was already cooked, but it hadn't had the

final parmesean and herbs added. We mixed the sauce with the chicken

pieces; they tasted fine now. We quickly made an additional batch of

the chicken sauce. We laid out the bite size chicken chunks on the

plates of pasta, poured the additional sauce on, then threw on some

additional slivered almonds. The final result was a sweet-sour chicken

and pasta dish. This was probably the most palate-challenging dish in

the entire feast, but it disappeared as quickly as everything else.

We wound up with an unused container of parmesean, but it will keep for

a while.

What was supposed to happen ...

IV. GALINE CUM SO SAPORE

{Chickens with Their Sauce}

CN 55

When you have roasted them well, take five peeled almonds and grind them

up with fine sugar - if you do not have sugar, use honey - and temper

that with lemon juice to make it slightly thick; put this over the

chickens, or else put the sauce in small bowls and the chickens on

plates; serve warm.

Per Table 17 Tables

8 boneless chicken breasts 136 breasts

1/4 cup almonds 4 cups almonds

2+ tbs sugar 2-1/2 cups sugar

2 tbs lemon juice 2-1/4 cups lemon juice

Roast or grill chicken with minimal spices. Grind almonds together with

sugar, mix with enough lemon juice to form a slightly thick sauce. Heat

for several minutes in a sauce pan to warm, brush or pour over chicken.

VERMICELLI

{Pasta}

CN 17

Cook them in good fat broth for an hour, then set them out with grated

Parmesean cheese and mild spices; first make them yellow with saffron.

P VII 52

... You will call these bits vermicelli {worms}... When they have been

cooked for an hour in rich broth and put in a dish, season with ground

cheese and spices ... They may be somewhat colored with saffron...

Per Table 17 Tables

1 lb Vermicelli 17 lbs Vermicelli

1/2 cup Parmesean 8-1/2 cups cheese

Broth to cover {~ 2 qts} Broth to cover {several gallons?}

Spices

parsley 1 bunch

thyme 3 tbs

savory 3 tbs

saffron several threads

Cook pasta, sprinkle with cheese and herbs.

COMMENTS: The recipe calls for fat broth; I used vegetable broth. A

fattier broth would probably have imparted more taste. My saffron got

misplaced in the kitchen, so it did not get added. This would have been

too much pasta if it hadn't been pressed into service to salvage the

chicken. It would have been slightly different to the modern palate,

because neither recipe specifies adding butter or oil when serving, so I

wasn't going to. It would have been plain pasta with parmesean and

herbs on top. Anyway, it worked out better that the pasta was as bland

as possible, because it certainly wasn't after the chicken sauce was

added.

John

Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 09:49:44 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 5

This is where I took a period dish and made it peri-oid. The stew

itself is period and rice was served in period. But, I can't say that

they served a stew over rice in period {at least, I haven't seen any

recipes for such}. However, I chose to take this liberty for several

reasons. First, we were importing all our serving dishes onto the site

and trying to avoid having to wash dishes between courses, so it was

more expedient to co-mingle the 2. Second, while my redaction worked

fine when I worked it out for a table of 8, I was concerned that when

scaling it up x17 I would wind up with too much broth and it would be

more like lamb soup than stew. This, in fact, did happen, and the rice

helped bulk it up. Even though I drastically scaled back on the broth

proportionally, the stew never got as thick as the trial batch, but with

the rice added to it, you got food in every spoonful. Third, while I

wanted the rice as an additional starch, people around here see enough

plain white rice in a bowl at events that it would mostly have gone

uneaten. This way they got something familiar in a less familiar form

which was still edible {just like I used fresh locally baked wheat

breads rather than the $1.79 for 2 loaves of quasi-French bread from

Sam's that tends to make its way onto tables around here}. I had

additional rice available for vegetarians who obviously didn't want

theirs with meat juice all over it.

V. CARNERO CUM BRODETTO ET RISO

{Mutton with Thick Broth and Rice}

CN 46

Get kid or mutton and cut it into small pieces, and put it in a pot with

salt pork, then get sage, mint, and onion, and cook everything together;

then get good spices and saffron, distemper them with the meat's broth

and let everything boil together until the meat falls apart; then lift

the meat out into a dish with the thick broth.

Per Table 17 Tables

2 lbs lamb 34 lbs lamb

1 tbs oil for frying 1 cup oil {Too Much, See Below}

1 cup vegetable broth approx 24 cups {Too Much, See Above}

1/2 onion, sliced 8 onions

1/2 tsp sage 1/2 cup sage

1/2 tsp mint 1/2 cup mint

1/4 tsp salt 2 tbs salt {Scaled Down Amount}

1/2 tsp rosemary 1/2 cup rosemary

1/2 tsp thyme 1/2 cup thyme

pinch pepper 2 tbs pepper

Cube lamb, rub with mint, sage and salt. Fry lamb in oil, add onion and

fry until translucent. Start broth boiling, adding the rosemary, thyme,

and pepper. Add meat and onions to broth, simmer to thicken as much as

possible.

COMMENTS: Mutton not being a common commodity in South Carolina, I used

lamb. I omitted the salt pork and added salt to the sage/mint mixture

instead; the method we used to prepare the dish didn't lend itself to

using the salt pork. We had more success with the grill for the lamb

than we did with the chickens. We had boneless hunks of lamb, about 4

lbs each. We cut them into approx. 1 inch thick steaks, rubbed them

with the sage, mint and salt, and put them back into the walk-in for

several hours. We then put them on the grill while we started frying

the onions and got the broth boiling. We didn't need nearly the amount

of oil allocated, since we were only frying the onions; about 1/3 cup

was sufficient. We seared the meat on both sides, then pulled it off

and cubed it before throwing it in the pot. If my memory is correct, we

simmered it for around 45 minutes.

We cooked 10 lbs of rice, which would have been too much, but I let a

pan slightly scorch, so we would up with about 8 lbs usuable. We

dolloped the rice into serving bowls, then ladled the stew on top. The

only negative comments I received were from a couple of people who liked

the stew but didn't like having to pick out the pieces of rosemary in it

{and I had someone else tell me how much he enjoyed having the rosemary

to gnaw on}. I guess I could have stapled the rosemary in a tea bag or

something and pulled it out before serving, but the taste/texture has

never bothered me.

John

Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000 09:15:38 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 6

Continuing the 5th course ...

There were recipes for this torte in both sources. The CN had the option

of covering the torte with strips of buffalo cheese rather than an upper

crust. According to Widcombe's "The Cheese Book" and Ensrud's "Pocket

Guide to Cheese," Mozzarella was originally made from water buffalo

milk, so I used it for this purpose. I couldn't find any chard {fairly

rare here but you can occasionally get it}, so I substituted spinach.

TORTA BULIGNESA

{Bolognese Torte}

CN 126

Get a pound of new cheese and of old cheese, and grate it; get well

cleaned chard, parsley, and marjoram, and beat them as much as you can

with a knife and fry them in a little good butter, then take them out;

get four eggs, saffron, and a good lot of pepper, and lard or good

butter, and mix everything together; make a thin pastry crust on the

bottom of the pan and put this mixture in it; have another crust on top

or else get buffalo cheese, cut it into strips and cover the mixture

with it instead of a crust. Note that it should have a good smell of

pepper, and cook it slowly; when the upper crust puffs up - I mean,

rises - then it is done.

P VIII 27

Cut up as and grind as much rich cheese as I suggested for white pie

{NOTE: 1-1/2 lbs}. When it is ground, add chard, parsley, marjoram,

washed and cut up, four well-beaten eggs, crushed pepper, a little

saffron, a lot of fat or fresh butter, and mix it with your hands until

it almost makes a single mass. Put this on the hearth, similarly in an

earthenware pot with an undercrust. When it is semicooked, put in an

egg beaten with saffron so that it seems more colored. Consider it

cooked when it raises the upper crust.

Per Table 17 Tables

2 cups Mozzarella, shredded 34 cups Mozzarella

1/4 cup chard/spinach 4 cups chard

1-1/2 tsp parsley 1 bunch parsley

1/2 tsp marjoram 3 tbs marjoram

3 eggs, beaten 51 eggs

1/8 tsp pepper 2 tsp pepper

pinch saffron 5-6 threads saffron

2 tbs butter 4-1/4 sticks butter

9' pie shell, baked blind 17 pie shells

Mix 1-1/2 cups of cheese with remaining ingredients until thoroughly

combined. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or

until almost set. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top, put back

in the oven for several minutes to melt. Can be served hot or cold.

COMMENTS: Because of competition for oven time, this was baked earlier

in the day and put in the walk-in to chill. Unfortunately, the kitchen

had very limited counter and staging area space, so we left the tortes

in the cooler until just before serving. I had a couple of comments

that they were too cold to be fully enjoyed. If there had been

someplace to put them, it would have been better to bring them out about

15 minutes earlier to knock a little of the chill off them.

John

Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 13:37:59 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 7

At this point in time, someone walked close enough to the bar in the VFW

Post to hear on the tv that sleet was arriving with snow to follow.

Until then, we had been sending out the courses about every 10 minutes,

so people had time to eat and converse in-between. Her Majesty's head

lady-in-waiting informed us that She was requesting that the rest of the

feast be served en masse so that She could get away before the weather

got worse. So, the rest of the feast was rushed out as soon as we could

get it plated.

VII PORCELLO

{Roast Pork}

Nothing too fancy. Just took pork loins {2 lbs/table, 34 lbs total},

rubbed them with garlic and pepper, then roasted at 325 degrees for about

25 minutes per lb.

BORDO NERO PER PIATTI X

{Dark Sauce for 10 Platters}

This was the one recipe I did not redact myself. Master Basilius Phocas

and his apprentices from the Middle Kingdom are translating and

redacting Christoforo Messisbugo's "Libro Novo." This recipe was in a

handout I received from their class at Pennsic in 1998. Since I don't

have contact information for Master Basilius, I don't think I should be

reproducing his work without his permission. I will cheat somewhat and

tell you it is made with red wine, prunes, raisins, bread crumbs, honey

and cloves. It was a huge hit, but something I couldn't take any credit

for. If anyone in the Middle can contact Master Basilius and obtain his

permission, I'll post it. Several people told me they would have turned

up their noses and refused to try it if they had known what was in it

beforehand, but thought it went perfectly with the pork.

FASOLI

{Kidney Beans}

CN 41

Cook the kidney beans in pure water or good broth; when they are cooked,

get finely sliced onions and fry them in a pan with good oil and put

these fried onions on top [of the beans] along with pepper, cinnamon and

saffron; let this sit a while on the hot coals; dish it up with good

spices on top.

P VII 14

... Its cold and harmfulness can be reduced to some degree by sprinkling

with marjoram, pepper, and mustard.

Per Table 17 Tables {Scaled Down!}

2 cans kidney beans 26 cans

1 onion, chopped 13 onions

2 tbs oil for frying 1 cup oil

1/2 tsp cinnamon 3 tbs cinnamon

1/4 tsp pepper 1-1/2 tbs pepper

pinch saffron several threads

1/2 tsp marjoram 3 tbs marjoram

1/4 tsp ground mustard 1-1/2 tbs mustard

Boil the kidney beans in salted water. Fry onions in oil. Drain beans,

add to onions along with 1/8 tsp pepper, cinnamon, and saffron. Mix

thoroughly to blend. Dish into bowls, sprinkle with remaining pepper,

marjoram and mustard.

COMMENTS: Scaled this down, because it's a like-it-or-hate-it dish and

it was coming at the end of the feast alongside the hunks of roast. So,

I assumed most people would just try a few spoonfuls. That turned out

to be accurate, so I managed to avoid massive wasteage.

John

Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 23:30:59 -0500

From: Ann & Les Shelton <sheltons at conterra.com>

Subject: SC - Passage East III - Part 8

Final course ...

VII PIRUM IN TORTA

{Pear Torte}

P VIII 30

Mix and cook under ashes and coals almost all those things we described

for gourds with rape and pears or quinces, well cooked and ground up...

P VIII 29 {Gourd Pie}

Grind well-washed gourds as you are accustomed to do for cheese, then

boil a little either in rich juice or in milk. When they have been

half-cooked and passed through a sieve into a bowl, mix, adding as much

cheese as I described before, half a pound of sowbelly, or very fat

udder, boiled and pounded with a knife, or in place of these, if it

pleases you, add the same amount of butter or fat, half a pound of

sugar, a little ginger, some cinnamon, six eggs, a cup of milk, and a

little saffron. Cook this in an oiled earthenware pot with an

undercrust, under or over a slow fire. Some add pieces of pastry leaves

which they call crepes in place of an upper crust. When it is cooked

and transferred into a dish, sprinkle with sugar and rosewater.

Per Table 17 Tables

1 can {15.5 oz} pears 17 cans

3/4 cup ricotta cheese 12-1/2 cups

1/2 stick butter 8-1/2 sticks

4 eggs 68 eggs

1/2 cup sugar 8-1/2 cups

3/4 tsp ginger 1/4 cup

3/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup

9' pie shell 17 pie shells

This works best in a Cuisinart or heavy duty mixer. Chop up pears,

slowly add each additional ingredient in order, mixing to incorporate.

Once final product has been blended smooth, pour into pie shell and bake

at 325 degrees approximately 40 minutes or until set. Can be served

chilled.

COMMENTS: This wound up being a peri-oid interpretation. After several

attempts, I never found adding milk to help the taste; it just made the

mixture moister. Rosewater is not a popular flavor around here and I

felt that it detracted from the taste of the tart. I also omitted the

upper crust. So, it tasted good and was incredibly popular, but Platina

wouldn't have recognized it.

NUCATO

{Honey-Almond Candy}

This recipe came from "The Medieval Kitchen" by Redon et al. {Note: this

is my interpretation, not the recipe the authors of the book created}.

The original source was Francesco Zambrini, editor, Libro della cucina

del secolo XIV.

ZA 77

Of honey boiled with walnuts, known as nucato. Take honey, boiled and

skimmed, with slightly crushed walnuts and spices, boiled together; wet

the palm of your hand with water and spread it out; let it cool, and

serve. And you can use almonds or filberts in place of walnuts.

1 Recipe makes enough for 5-6 tables; I made 3 batches for this event.

1 Recipe 3 Recipes

1-1/2 cups honey 4-1/2 cups

3 cups almonds 9 cups

1 tsp ginger 1 tbs

1/2 tsp cinnamon 1-1/2 tsp

1/4 tsp nutmeg 3/4 tsp

pinch cardamom 1/4 tsp

Coursely chop the almonds. Bring honey to boil on stovetop. Add nuts

and spices. Cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring

continuously. Pour onto cookie sheet, spread out evenly, allow to cool

before slicing.

PISTACIIS

{Pistachios}

A bowl of pistachio nuts for each table; approx. 1 cup each.

John