Comments | alinore: Cordials cordials and more cordials.

alinore

Cordials cordials and more cordials.

Oct 12, 2006 19:40

I've finished my cordials and now they're in jars in a closet so they can age. The process of finishing them was pouring them in a strainer with a clean towel in it and squeezing all the liquid out, then adding a sugar syrup to them and pouring them into a canning jar to age. Right now I have 6 cordials in my closet aging. I am especially ( Read more... )

cordials, cooking, dresses

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patsmor October 13 2006, 02:44:45 UTC

I wish I could appreciate cordials more. They're very pretty. ;-)

Tell me about the food project. Are you working up to something specific?

alinore October 13 2006, 02:52:11 UTC

My food project is basically taking the opportunity presented to me with the SCA to try my hand at cooking medieval foods. I really enjoy regular cooking and so far I've enjoyed the different period foods that I've tried.

I'm something of a foodie, so it makes sense to me to take a hobby I really enjoy and see how it translates into an SCA setting. So far, having a blast with it.

patsmor October 13 2006, 02:55:44 UTC

It's always interesting to me to see how people get into what interests them. I got into food because of feasts -- I am one of those people who has trouble saying "yes" when asked to help, and one of my only skills when I found the SCA (as opposed to my studies, which included medieval lit) is/was making food for hordes of people. So I ended up being a kitchen slavey and learning from the practical side rather than the artistic side. Moving to more and more period sources and understanding the period aesthetic rather than the modern has been the harder part for me.

alinore October 13 2006, 03:00:20 UTC

I started helping my mom (and the rest of my family, they all cook) from the time I could hold a spoon. It may have made more work for them, but they were always willing to let me help out. And gradually, we got more and more complicated in the recipes that we would attempt, until finally we were bringing out the complicated French stuff.

So when I started the SCA, I was interested in cooking, but until recently the shire hasn't done a whole lot on the A&S/cooking side of things and I was hesitant to explore it by myself. What I'm finding most interesting so far is the way they use spices and herbs. It isn't the way you would usually use them, but quite tasty.

patsmor October 13 2006, 04:05:06 UTC

Ah. I learned a lot about traditional Southern Cooking, and the only new uses of herbs and spices and such I got was from finding recipes and such in magazines, the newspaper, and so on. When I was 12-14, I had a monthly spot on the "Cooking with Cordelia Kelley" show, on the local channel, for cooking with kids. It was all how to do easy, not unfamiliar things (pork chops, or navy bean soup, or things like that), and also not stuff that would be really expensive, given that the viewership in the local city and surrounds weren't terribly rich.

I find the use of herbs and spices really fascinating, and really have only gotten a deeper understanding in the last 10-12 years.

patsmor October 13 2006, 04:06:39 UTC

I guess I should say that feasts and eating were a big deal in Northwoods, so we did a lot of it. Caellyn and the others were very up-to-date for the early 1980's, but we didn't do a lot of exploration beyond presentation & basic research before I moved away.

alinore October 16 2006, 16:26:28 UTC

Every spring I give in to the allure of the baby plants and I start a kitchen garden. This year I need to expand it a little as last year the basil took over the garden completely and crowded out the sage and the chives. I'm enjoying the access to the fresh herbs, I only wish Minnesota wasn't so darn cold during the winter and it didn't kill off all of my plants.

patsmor October 16 2006, 16:52:06 UTC

I have the same problem in reverse -- the hot and drought kills everything we don't water! We don't have rain between April and October, usually, and up here in the Sacramento area we have average temps of 90 in the day during the summer.

alinore October 17 2006, 13:52:56 UTC

I wish I had any sort of luck with indoor plants, but the kitties are.. kitties and chow down on any hapless plants that are unlucky enough to be brought indoors. Not that they'll touch the cat grass we buy for them.

patsmor October 17 2006, 14:03:15 UTC

Sigh. Kitties are so annoying, aren't they? Mine are driving me crazy.

alinore October 17 2006, 15:16:27 UTC

I think the funniest thing right now is how our youngest cat (who is about 4 years old) and my two year old get jealous of one another. The cat yowls at Sophia and Sophia cries if Neko is sitting in my lap too long. It's too funny. The instant Sophia goes to bed, I have a lap full of cat whether I want it or not. I'm trying to convince her that it is ok to sleep next to me, but it's not going so well. Stubborn cat and stubborn toddler.

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