Culinary Symposium -- What Great Fun!!!
As I mentioned, I'm just today catching up on LJ, so I've seen the other Culinary Symposium posts, but not done one myself, so here goes.
It was sooooo fuuuunnnn!!! Rafaella and Countess E and all the other people who worked so hard to put on this event did a totally fabulous and wonderful job. Yeahhh! Flayling muppet arms yeah!
GM and C and I flew up to Seattle, got a our rental car and then drove off to a lovely seafood place C had found on-line. We ate tasty fishies and watched the birds and a seal in the water. Then we got on the road for the site, with a stop at the grocery store for some supplies for our classes. We kept driving in the rain, through the woods, in the dark not sure when we'd get there. We were on the right road but we weren't quite sure how far along it we were supposed to go until C re-checked the map. Comments were made about the weather and that at least there wasn't any snow, when we got to the turn off for the site. On either side of the road to site were piles of cold white stuff. Burr.
We get to the main lodge with much hugs and greetings of An Tirian friends. We have been assigned to the party cabin. Woo hoo. Many fun people that I know and then I get to meet new fun people. There was much staying up late chatting and giggling and generally being silly. I got to sleep under Y-sabella and Eduardo :-) OK, not like that, they were in the bunks above me. The cabins were heated and not completely full, so I snagged an extra pad and was quite toasty in the bedding that our hosts had kindly provided.
My class on slightly post period chocolate was first thing Saturday morning. It went well and everybody got to drink some chocolate. With various people taking turns working the molillno we were able to work up a proper froth on the drink. I ended up making a second pot, since there were sufficient supplies, so that other folks sitting around the lodge could have some as well. All the info from that class has been posted on my Renaissance Spain blog (first and only entry so far) but I need to tweak it a bit to make the pictures come out right.
Over the course of the weekend I took several of Alys Katherine's classes. She came all the way from the Middle for this ... also to visit her offspring who lives in the area. I had taken her comfits class before, so that was the only one of her classes that I skipped this time. Her pictures, recipes and info from both Ivan Day http://www.historicfood.com/ and from the kitchens at Hampton Court were very inspiring. More cool projects to try ... just what I need :-) At the very least I will strive for prettier pies.
I also took the wonderful class on 16th c. German food by the wonderful K who I had only known from LJ previously. Tons of interesting stuff and a thorough study of a neglected source. Very cool.
The class schedule was packed with other interesting sounding classes that I didn't get to take, but that's why you keep going back to these things, so you can learn more fun stuff :-) The breads, fermentation, Roman stuff, Viking stuff and street food all sounded good too, so I hope to see them offered again.
The track of academic style papers was also a hit. If/when the Culinary Symposium is done in this neck of the woods next year, we must include this. We've already picked a theme ... service. How food was served in whatever part of period a person wants to study, or how a particular dish is served, or any other variations on that theme that folks come up with.
Sunday morning sitting in class I looked out the window and saw snow falling. It wasn't snowing hard, just enough fluffy white bits to be picturesque. The site was a densly forested camp that was very pretty and not too spread out.
The food was all tasty, especially Saturday dinner provided by the Madrone Culinary Guild.
Saturday night was a late night in our cabin after dinner, when various folks from other cabins joined us for snacks and drinks. I brought some cheese I'd made, some 16th c style candied fruits, a fruit cheese http://www.junetaylorjams.com/specialties/specialties.htm that I'd purchased at the farmers market and some vin de noix that I'd made several years ago. Lots of other goodies also floated around the room.
Around mid-day on Sunday every one (except the hard working and wonderful autocrat team) were heading out. We now had Y-sabella in tow, so the four of us set out for the Pike Place Market before our evening flights out of SeaTac. We hit all three of the spice vendors in and around Pike Place as well as stopping for a bit of a nosh. Good shopping. Huge crowds ... I think it was a rare sunny day, so *everyone* wanted to go to the market.
Delayed but uneventful flight home.
Up too darn early the next morning 4/18 for the annual earthquake celebration at Lotta's Fountain. Still one survivor showed up. The acting police chief is actually tall enough to place the wreath on the fountain. A good rousing rendition of the song "San Francisco" this year.
Too much sleepiness and waaay too much work this week has delayed my LJ participation.
Much planning and plotting for next year's Culinary Symposium, hee hee :-)