fst-disasters-msg – 3/23/08
Tales of SCA feasts that were disasters.
NOTE: See also the files: feast-ideas-msg, feast-menus-msg, headcooks-msg, feast-serving-msg, p-menus-msg, Fst-Managemnt-art, kitch-toolbox-msg, Run-a-Feast-art.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 19:52:51 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - A Flopped Feast Tale
<< some humorous anecdotes of stuff we've come up with while trying
> to redact and weird things that have happened at feasts would be
> worthwhile as a little seasoning on this list. >>
2 yrs. ago. I decided to do a totally" authentic" feast. One of the helpers
was perparing a lamb meatball type thingy from al-Baghdadi. He was to chop
the onions into small pcs. He actually cut them into BIG CHUNKS and formed
the meatballs. He was so proud of this first attempt at cooking that I could
only praise his attempt as a perfect illusion of "porcupine eggs".
At mid-morning the ovens blew up into a huge fireball and we had to send to
the local deli for period looking bread because 32 loaves were charred black.
The ovens never would heat over 200 degrees after the explosion soooooooo the
tarts were sort of dried crispy things. The stove burners wouldn't go above
med low so the fried fish was "moist". Any way I was so ashamed that I
refused to go into the feast hall for the traditional "vivat" to the cooks.
A while later when the fighters were washing the dishes and I had secreted
myself in the storage room to get lost in a fine bottle of ale, King Ruslan
came timidly knocking at the door. He requested a container of the chicken
forsemeat with currants dish because he had loved it and wanted to know if
some were left so he could take some home; telling me that the feast was
wonderful and one of the best he had ever eaten especially the "sushi".
I am not one to get TOO emotional but that little gesture in the face of the
worst feast I had ever prepared made tears flow. And, it became the
overriding stimulus for me to continue in the kitchen.
Lord Ras (Uduido at aqol.com)
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 12:07:42 -0700
From: kat <kat at kagan.com>
Subject: SC - horror stories (was re: fake intestines)
Drake asked:
> Has anyone else got horror stories of
> lovingly prepared dishes destroyed at someone elses hands at Feasts?
Welllllll.... now that you ask...
This one didn't happen to me personally; but I was there for the whole thing. A feastocrat asked the 12-year-old daughter of the head of my house (from a family of really great cooks) to "be in charge" of an entire course. She patiently researched and (with lots of help) recreated the recipes -- a lovely beef dish and a green olive soup; and no, Ras, I don't have the recipes or source <grin> -- and had us over for dinner a couple of times trying them out. I think they were perioid rather than period; but she worked her little heart out and the test runs were terrific!
She showed up the morning of the feast, armed with notes and information... and was told by the Great and Mighty Feastocrat that, since she was so young, she was not allowed to touch the knives or come near the stove. He refused to take her advice on the dishes and prepared the recipes HIS way.
And he made a few mistakes.
Like not draining the brine from the olives prior to making the soup.
<<<<<<<<<shudder>>>>>>>>>> I can STILL taste it...
- kat
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 17:15:14 -0500 (CDT)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming )
Subject: SC - Re: Fake Intestines
Greetings! Drake wrote:
> Has anyone else got horror stories of
>lovingly prepared dishes destroyed at someone elses hands at Feasts?
At Pennsic 18 (or 19?) I made a dragon out of chocolate and rice
krispies and covered him/it with green chocolate coating. He had
slivered almonds for claws and a red marzipan tongue. The green
coating was "fluffed" up to look like scales. It was presented to
Their Majesties of the Midrealm to use as booty. I learned the
following year that they had thrown the whole thing away because they
didn't know it was edible. So much for the little speeches one gives
Royalty when presenting items. :-(
Alys Katharine, who knows better, now, about chocolate but still makes
stuff from it
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 21:56:06 EDT
From: kathe1 at juno.com (Kathleen M Everitt)
Subject: SC - Re: Illusion food)
> Has anyone else got horror stories of
>lovingly prepared dishes destroyed at someone elses hands at Feasts?
>
>Drake.
Yeah, but it was an accident. Many years ago, I made facacio on site for
about 125 people for a friend's event. He said the site had a couple of
big pizza ovens. I spent all day making batch after batch of bread dough,
because I have arthritis and can't knead more than one batch at a time. I
think I made 10 batches all together, got them spread out on these big
pizza pans that just fit the ovens, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled
with rosemary, then I gave the cook instructions on how to cook them and
went out to set places for my family for the feast. I got to talking to
people and didn't get back into the kitchen for a while. Another of the
cooks came looking for me. Seems one of the two "pizza" ovens was
actually a broiler. Rosemary flavored charcoal, anyone?
Julleran
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:58:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: Fake intestines (was: SC - Re: Illusion food)
<< Has anyone else got horror stories of
lovingly prepared dishes destroyed at someone elses hands at Feasts? >>
At the Herald's Collegium a couple of years ago a lady made a subtlety of a
lage castle out of gingerbread and marzipand with working draw bridges and
little archers in the battlements, etc. They had to tear the door frame out
of their house to get it to the site. :-0
It was placed on display for all to see . During the afternoon a child from
H**l appoached the table. She asked what it was for and it was explained that
it was for eating after the feast and she should enjoy looking at it for now
because later it would be torn apart. She seemed to accept this. An hour
later someone noticed that the castle was completely destroyed. The girl in
question was eating a piece of the castle. When asked why she had done such a
thing she calmly and naively replyed "Well, my daddy said we weren't staying
for feast so I tore it apart for you ahead of time". :-0
Ras (Who was reminded why he chose to stay childless that day.)
Date: Wednesday, January 14, 1998 08:12:19
From: Ginny Beatty
To: Middlebridge
Subject: [Mid] Why bad feasts happen to good people
OK,
It is well known that bad feasts have happened throughout our organization
for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes bad feasts happen to good people.
Here are some possible reasons that I have observed over time.:
Poor planning and resource management
The (person in charge of the feast -- insert favorite term here) is new to
SCA feasts.
It's their first feast and they want to do everything themself.
They are a good cook in a small scale, but anything over 50 servings freaks
them out
Improper preparation of food before cooking (proper defrosting of the
chicken before cooking)
Audience analysis ("what? all we get is fish?" "Where's the beef!?")
Bad lighting ("I can't see the food.")
Timing and scheduling of courses
Poor server management ("why didn't we get the roast pork? Other tables
did.")
Portion control (too much bread, not enough meat)
Stress ( the head cook is a babbling pile of goo in the corner. Now who's
in charge? Quick! Call in the Crisis Management Team!!)
Gwyneth
ginbeatty at compuserve.com
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 9:50:58 +1100
From: Robyn.Hodgkin at mailhost.dpie.gov.au
Subject: SC - disastrous kitchen stories
I reckon I just about top anyone in the equipment disaster area.
Here was I, catering a camping feast for 350 (Rowany festival).
The steward of the event tells me after I arrive, that there are actually
450 people at the event. Great start.
I am doing a simple menu: deboned chickens stuffed with
dried fruit and wrapped in pastry; a vegetarian soup; a meat soup;
rabbit stew; roast lamb; a small spitted deer; mixed vegetables in sour
cream; freshly baked bread (Masters Charles and John's bakery)
and rice pudding for dessert. (and something else, but I cannot
remember for the life of me what it was)
I asked that they hire two large gas ovens, 12 gas hotplates;
4x60 litre pots; 6x40 litre pots, and 6x20 litre pots, 8 ladles and
a spit.
I got 2 large gas ovens, only one of which worked; 3 gas burners,
an open fire spit, and 3x 20 litre pots - no ladles or spoons at all.
We ended up going around the camp fires and borrowing camp
ovens from everyone for the rabbit stew. The 450 people were
crammed into a space big enough for 350, so serving was a
disaster. We had left overs galore and people saying that they
had not gotten food. (I have to admit that this is a problem I have
little sympathy for, as it just shows that those people did not
volunteer to serve - don't you find that servers and servers
friends never go hungry?) The first batch of rice pudding burnt
on the bottom.
I still shudder to remember the whole thing. I am planning on
holding a feast at Rowany festival next year, to celebrate my
wedding. Things will be a bit different..... I thought we would pay
spit roast professionals to cook the meat (that is what they
do best, and it should cost less than $8 per head for 850
people) and pre-make heaps of pies and salads. Maybe not
the most 'period' option, but one that is workable.
Kiriel
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 23:45:01 -0700
From: ladymari at gila.net (Mary Hysong)
Subject: Re: SC - Kat's Whiteshield feast
kat wrote:
> > The feast started 1/2 hour later than it was "supposed to" which
> > merely whet all appetites. The kitchen I hear was a bit inadequate-<snip>
>
> Inadequate is not the word. I knew beforehand (thank the Gods) that there was only one oven and one 4-burner stove; but even with the preplanning and prepping we were able to do on Friday, it was still a logistical nightmare.
[greatly snipped]
Shucks, we'd give anything to have a site with an oven and a 4 burner stove......We've now done two 40-50 person feast out of a 6 x 6 concession stand which electricity and a fridge but nothing else, and two 100 person feast at a primitive campsite without building, ramadas, tables or running water or garbage service......I'm not sure we'd know how to cook without pre cooking
almost every thing before hand, hauling out 100 or more gallons of water, several large BBQ's and having such disasters as the cakes that sank in the ice chest [they drained the water off and rebaked them one at a time in Lyddy's camp trailer oven and dubbed them 'shipwrecked cakes'] the time the guys sat the dry ice on top of the lettuce for the salad....the time we *forgot*
to serve the pea salad and ate it next day for lunch, the time I was heralding court for TM at dusk, the fire tender having sent word to make it as long as possible, the dinner wasn't ready yet and His Majesty telling me to hurry up it was getting dark and everyone wanted their dinner... the time, well I suppose we all have disasters, being a good autocrat tho is planning for
them and hoping they never.... Sounds like you pulled off a wonderful feast.
Maistreas Mairi Broder,
Shire of Nathair Airgid, Atenveldt
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 13:06:01 EST
From: THL Renata <THLRenata at aol.com>
Subject: SC - Fabulous Feasts
Aoife writes:
>>>Q: How does one get the book Fabulous Feasts?
A: By being a very bad girl! It's a very bad book!<<
All too true! The recipes in this book are terrible!
My very first banquet in the SCA was what we now fondly call "11th Night",
when the King of Caid changed the date of 12th Night at almost the last minute
and some visitors from our far barony of Western Seas (Hawaii) could not
change their airline reservations.
So our barony put on a banquet in their honor. All who attended were assigned
a dish to bring, with 4 or 5 people assigned to bring the same dish. ALL of
the recipes were out of Fabulous Feasts. NONE of the recipes were tested
before being assigned. (This was a long time ago, when we didin't know
better!)
Aside from the roast turkey that was served to the head table, the rest of the
feast was uniformly horrid. None of the F.F. recipes came out as anything
approaching edible.
To cap off the evening, our host that night (a duke) had made his specialty --
split pea soup -- but for some reason had thickened it with arrowroot instead
of cornstarch. The soup started to expand and soon there were 2 caldrons of
soup where there once was but 1. I think he may have scorched it as well. And
as it was served, His Grace stood up from his place at the head table and
said with great meaning, "I hope you're all enjoying the soup."
Needless to say, it was disgusting. Now, this was not the fault of the book,
but I have not been able to eat split pea soup since.
Those few of us that survived the banquet laugh about it now.
Renata
Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 12:15:56 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Re: EK Crown Feast
<snip>
In the mean time, I can't let Lord Ras' touching comments go
unaddressed. I'm glad that people were impressed. I had hoped people
would get to see just how beautiful our work could be, and instead, I
gather I demonstrated what people regarded as an impressive ability to
handle (or at least continue to function under) what seemed like a
ceaseless barrage of emergencies. It's traditional at times like this to
assign blame to either the head cook or the autocrat. In all fairness
I'll do neither. Sometimes you simply plan for every conceivable
contingency, do absolutely everything right, and things still go wrong.
Lowlights include a fairly dangerous car accident, delivery of most of
the lunch foods at around 1PM, a set of new pots stamped from shiny
aluminum foil, guaranteed to make even water stick and burn after 30
seconds on low heat, badly calibrated ovens, and a populace who simply
refused to read the menu and feast notes posted all the heck over the
place (my usual kitchen "bouncer" was away squiring his knight and
fighting in the Tourney). There was also one minor and one significant
problem with the site contacts, who are absolutely lovely people in
every respect, but suffice it to say that there were misunderstandings
in areas we had all thought were clearly settled, resulting in there
being about 20% of the refrigeration space we had planned on. There's
more, which, for quite a few reasons, I won't go into.
As I say, we all thought we had planned for everything, and then
everything _else_ happened. Still, we managed to pull quite a few
rabbits out of our hats, so most everybody had a good time anyway, even
though the feast was, to me, the worst one I've done in 14 years. I
guess I'm just a bit, well, wistful over What Might Have Been.
Adamantius
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 02:53:12 EDT
From: Varju at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Guilty Conscience
<< Does anyone else have similar horror stories? I'm sure we would all
be amused by them! >>
Well, luckily most of the events I have done feasts for the autocrat was my
then boyfriend/ now husband and he knew he had to go home with me, so he never
made any bizarre requests.
My worst feast had nothing to do with the autocrat. I was one of four cooks,
at a Crown Tourney (the results of which have since been anulled so it is
reffered to around here as the Crown that never was). Two of us [each] had a single course, and the other two ladies had teamed up on a course and dessert.
Somewhere along the line I ended up as the liason to the autocrat and the
"head cook". I had one cook i had to continually beat into submission, and
try to keep the other two from killing. The site was great, kitchen was good
beyond losing a burner on the stove (and marauding chipmunks since we were in
the woods), and everything was going well. Then someone had to [come] rushing
in talking about a tornado touching down at the camping site (it wasn't, it was
either a microburst or a really big wind) somewhere around the end of the
first course, beginning of the second course. As a result half of the people
rushed out of the hall to check on their belongings. We managed to get the
second course out, and fast forwarded past the third course (mine) to get
dessert out while there were still people in the hall. I ended up with so
many left overs it wasn't even funny. . .
The moral for me. . .I want to be the only cook in the kitchen and I reserve
the right to roast anyone who comes in with an interruption like that again.
Noemi
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 09:16:00 -0500
From: mfgunter at fnc.fujitsu.com (Michael F. Gunter)
Subject: SC - Horror Stories
> Does anyone else have similar horror stories? I'm sure we would all
> be amused by them! Murkial, you should not feel guilty in the least. You
> have made a blow for creative freedom & acknowledgment for all of us SCA
> cooks! ;)
>
> Master Huen
I've got a cute horror story (and I won't even go in to 12th Night).
A Barony close to us asked me to do the feast for their Rapier Champion tourney.
Although it was just two weeks after I was to return from Pennsic, the autocrat
assured me that there would be no problems. After all the feast was only for
around 100 people and it was in a full commercial kitchen in a former steakhouse.
I had a decent budget and was actually looking forward to it since I rarely get to cook in a good kitchen or when I do it's for 300+. I'd gotten a menu planned and the budget all in order just before I left for Pennsic. The Barony had a work day the weekend after I got back so my co-cook and I went to get things sorted out in the kitchen. Upon arriving on site we discovered the steakhouse had been abandoned for quite some time and the "commercial kitchen" consisted of a sink, a gas grill, a warming drawer and a walk-in. Plus, it appeared the grill had never been cleaned. There was built up grease an inch thick on the blower, we had to clean it with undiluted bleach. I basically sat in a corner doing massive restructuring of my menu in my head and muttering "you're a genuis, this doesn't matter" as a mantra.
After cleaning the mess I made a new menu in my head and went shopping all week.
I did wind up feeding everybody and they seemed to enjoy the meal. One other thing happened, I was using a Cajun cooker as a water boiler and evidently the gas feed line had been plugged with mud so I'm busy cooking along and look to see a propane gas can on fire in my kitchen. We did manage to get the gas turned off and the fire out before anything exploded.
In case anybody wondered I did Berry Kuchens, proscutto wrapped honeydew, Sicilian grilled pork, grilled vegetable pasta, sweet & sour chicken in a loaf, peach & nectarine shortcakes w/homemade whipped cream, and another vegetable dish that I can't remember right off. This was before my period food craze.
Gunthar
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 09:20:56 -0500
From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)
Subject: Re: SC - Horror stories
We've all got 'em, don't we? There was the time one of our favorite
sites--despite having no frig and a kitchen the size of a cardtable--had
2 painters in it, painting the walls as we brought in the food to cook:
"Thought you'd like a prettier kitchen..." well, maybe, if you like
mustard and olive, and if you weren't dripping paint on our feast...
And the time the park management removed all cooking utensils from the
lodge and didn't tell us so we could bring our own...
And the time the queen cut out one of my courses because her kids were
getting sleepy, but it was OK because the promised venison didn't show
up..."Bad year for hunting..."
And the time there was a January thaw so that it poured rain on the
outside grills that were supposed to cook the ducks and the feastocrat
had to cook under an umbrella...
Allison
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 18:00:17 -0400
From: dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca (Micaylah)
Subject: Re: SC - Horror stories
Ever try cooking lunch outside on one propane stove for 70 gentles in
FEBRUARY in the middle of an an Ottawa winter because the site decided at
the last minute they didn't want us using the day care kitchen? grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Micaylah
We don't use that site anymore. Funny that?
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 09:54:36 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - walnuts
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Adamantius commented:
> >opening a case of alleged shelled, blanched, and chopped
> >almonds...and discovering that they
> >were in fact shelled walnuts. We used most of them anyway, but not for
> >milk.
>
> So, for my knowledge and my file on feast disasters and recoveries, how
> did you handle this problem? Did you send somebody out for lots of more
> almonds? Or not make almond milk? What did you do with the shelled walnuts
> considering this was a spur-or-the-moment thing?
We sugared them in skillets containing an appropriate amount (hard to
describe in better detail) of hard-crack sugar syrup (just as it was
_beginning_ to caramelize, since we had no candy thermometer; thank
heaven for shiny saute pans), sprinkled on a tiny bit of salt as they
cooled, and served them in little bowls at the beginning of the first
course, just as Chiquart recommends. They are supposed to open the
stomach and chest, according to the prevailing medical theory of the
time. Sugar is considered a very mild expectorant, so that's probably
the idea behind it. The sugared nuts also had the advantage of being
more or less undisguised, so those who couldn't eat walnuts had a hard
time mistaking them for anything else.
As for our almond milk situation, we were just extremely careful to
extract everything worth extracting from the almonds we did have, and
made do with slightly less. We served smaller bowls of the porrey
chapeleyn and added slightly less almond milk to the blancmanger, and
omitted the fried almond garnish, and used something else, I forget
what.
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 21:19:13 EST
From: THLRenata at aol.com
Subject: SC - That Elizabethan Luncheon (LONG)
As some of you might recall, I somehow got myself involved doing a supposedly
Elizabethan lunch for a non-SCA needlework group doing a blackwork project.
That lunch took place yesterday.
Firstly, I must thank all of you -- reading about the feasts you've shared
with the list helped me overcome the many disasters which befell me yesterday.
And a special thanks to Anne-Marie for helping me come up with a wonderful
Elizabethan menu. Someday I hope to cook it, too, 'cause it ain't what
happened yesterday. Here's the story:
It seemed like such a good idea...
Back in August when all this started, there were 15 or so involved, including
a well-known (in Caid) chef and kitchen master. In the begining, he and I
were going to plan and cook the meal, with plenty of help AND a scullery crew
provided by the needlework group.
Well, life has this habit of getting in the way, doesn't it? I had to take
most of November, December and January off from the SCA due to a very sick
cat, a very sick father and then a reprise of the very sick cat.
While I was "away" other peoples' lives also got in the way of this project
and by the time I came back the group was down to 6 and I was head cook!
When I protested to the group organizer that I did not have the experience to
do this, having only worked on one feast prior to this, she (an ex-SCA duchess
with true talent for getting me into trouble) came back with "Nonsense! It's
only 25 people -- you served more than that at Thanksgiving. And you'll be in
complete charge -- just tell us what you want us to do!"
Valuable Lesson (VL) #1 -- When someone says you're in complete charge, don't
believe them.
OK, so with some misgivings I consult with Anne-Marie and come up with a menu.
And am then told that a) it's too much food and b) it's too "weird".
VL #2 -- period food belongs where it will be appreciated.
Soon the menu was whittled down to: Cornish Game Hens roasted with herbs,
Spinach Tarte (Rowen's recipe), Compound Sallet (from "To the Queen's Taste")
and jam tarts for dessert.
We did out shopping the night before (having scoped out the local Costco and
Smart 'n' Final in advance) and actually brought everything in for almost $80
under budget.
Did I mention that by this time there were 40 people to be fed?
Despite my repeated requests, we were unable to scope out the kitchen before
the day of the event. The needlework group uses the site frequently (it was a
church kitchen, by the way) and described the facilities in glowing terms.
"Big" was used a lot, "3 ovens" was mentioned along with "lots of counter
space." It was only that morning that I found out that, while the group used
the site a lot, no one had ever actually cooked there! Their usual fare was
either fancy sandwiches or was brought in by caterers.
VL#3 -- *Always* check out the kitchen yourself. Beforehand if possible.
By this time there was only me in the kitchen, so I drafted the aforementioned
ex-duchess and put her in charge of the jam tarts. There were indeed three
ovens on site -- none of which had a pilot light lit. So I had a rough and
ready course in how to light the pilot of a commercial oven. No permanent
damage done...
Leaving my helper to her jam tarts (which she swore she had made before --
there's another VL in here someplace) I prepared the hens for roasting. They
hadn't defrosted, of course, but I was expecting that -- my helper was in
charge of that and ignore my suggestion that the hens be purchased 2 days in
advance or left out on the counter overnight. A cold water bath soon fixed
that, then I cut each hen in half. Thank goodness for poultry shears, and
because I was working in cold water with partially frozen birds I never felt
the huge hole I wore thru the skin on one finger. Until later, that is.
When the birds were seasoned, I evicted the tart shells from the ovens (did I
mention that 2 of the ovens only had one rack in them?) and put the hens in.
My brother-in-law (a professional chef) had told me that if the ovens were
true the hens would cook in an hour. Since I didn't know the ovens
personally, I gave myself 2 hours. And a good thing, too, since 2 of the
ovens were *not* true to temperature and none of them heated evenly. So I had
to play some musical chicken there, but eventually all were cooked properly.
While the hens cooked, I chopped the ingredients for the salad, except for the
olives (I loath them, and one of my working conditions was that someone else
had to chop the nasty little things.) By this time the program of the day had
started -- we had 3 of our Laurels come in and talk about Elizabethan
clothing, including a "fashion show" where a lord and a lady were dressed from
the chemise out, with discussion of each piece of garb as it went on.
Then I got the spinach tartes ready to go into the ovens as soon as the hens
were done.
As the birds finished cooking, I gave them their final "sharpening" a generous
splash of lemon juice (verjuice or vinegar was deemed "too weird") and double
up the pans and put them in one of the ovens to stay warm, then put the pies
in. Due the uneven heating mentioned earlier, I had to play musical pies as
well, but they finally set, and lunch was served only 15 minutes behind
schedule.
While it was being eaten, my helper and I finished baking and filling the jam
tarts, which came out more like jam short cake. Oh well.
All of the dishes were extremely well received, especially the spinach tartes.
They want the recipe for their newsletter -- is that OK with you, Rowen?
After dessert was served and the kitchen crew got to sit down for a few
minutes and eat, we found out that the promised scullery crew had not
materialized. Fortunately, my ex-duchess helper has another true talent --
kitchen cleaning (Huette knows who I'm talking about now;) ) so we started at
one end and 2 1/2 hours later were done. Total time in the kitchen: 8 1/2
hours, including loading and unloading the car.
Every single one of those needleworkers made a point of coming to the kitchen
afterwards to thank us. I guess that's what makes it all worth while.
Renata (who is nursing a few burns, a huge blister and sore knee today, but
has otherwise had a pretty good weekend)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 23:21:39 EDT
From: Mordonna22 at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - feast disasters
THLRenata at aol.com writes:
<<
Hey, MaggiRos -- does this remind you of "The Cockaleeky of Death"? Please
share that story with the list. >>
I'm not MaggiRos, and I don't know the cockaleeky story, but at the recent
Highlands War a cook in a neighboring camp cooked a special treat of "Wild
Onion Soup" for his/her group. Problem was the "Wild Onions" were a member
of the lily family, and poisonous. All but one of them wound up spending a
miserable night in the Emergency Room.
Mordonna
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 10:52:19 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - feast disasters
>We were in the Mountains in the Barony of Ered Sul, Kingdom of Atenveldt,
>(Flagstaff, AZ mundanely). Tall pine forest, swampy little lake. Altitude
>about 7000 feet. Average yearly rainfall around 12 inches. Brief dusting of
>snow the morning of June 3. Just a bit damper and cooler than the rest of
>this Desert.
>
>Mordonna
Hello! The plant may have been Death Camass, Zigadenus species. It grows
throughout the US in sandy pinewoods, bogs, meadows, etc. The plant
resembles wild onion, but does not have the smell of onions.
If it were an introduced plant, it may have been Fly Poison, Amianthium
muscaetoxicum. It grows in the sandy soil of bogs, and open woodland from
NJ to FL, and west to eastern OK and TX. This also does not have the smell
of onions.
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:48:12 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - feast disasters