I survived running my very first SCA feast!
I meant to post this last week... but being sick really put a crimp in all my plans last week :-( Anyway, after starting feast planning back in 2007 I finally did it! For the Cleftlands’ Standardbearer’s Tournament the weekend before last I did a feast from the 1529 Spanish Cookbook, Libro de Cozina. (Which makes the very first artsy-craftsy thing I’ve ever done in from the time and place of my SCA name! *personal squee*! ) Anyway, the menu did change slightly from 2007, it ended up being:
I’d never redacted a recipe before, so figuring out the recipes was initially my biggest concern especially since I was running behind as my Your Wardrobe Unlock’d articles turned out to be much more difficult/time consuming then I expected - but eestep held my hands though the process so it all went surprisingly smoothly. I am not at all sure about the documentation, however. I mean, for the cilantro pottage and the spinach dish we ended up mixing and matching elements from 2-3 similar recipes in the book, and the torte had a long section of the recipe that read like it was “how to create an oven when all you have is a fire” … so I just used an oven. I know how much leeway I allow myself with costumes and interpreting evidence, but I don’t even know how much leeway I’ve taken with the recipes. I mean, what’s considered perfectly good practice, and what is stretching things? Anyway, the recipes (if you can call them that) should be up on the Cleftlands cook’s guild site sometime soon…
Anyway, the actual cooking and feast kitchen stuff again went surprisingly (imo) well - for which I credit the extremely experienced crew who volunteered to help :-). The weekend before the event, eestep and I got together and made the torte. I did a significant amount of shopping at Costco after work on Monday, and then I took the Friday before the event off of work in order to do the rest of the grocery shopping (for which I was slightly over budget *pout* but the event still made money so all is good). Then, that Friday afternoon coffeekitten and efrda1 and Jehanne came over and we made the lamb.
So, by the time we got to the event there were only 4 dishes to make (and the figs were so easy they barely count - put stuff in pot and cook. Done. ). A couple hours were spent cleaning the kitchen and organizing stuff, maybe another hour chopping stuff, and then we all wandered around feeling like something was wrong since there wasn’t really anything else to do until about 2pm!
Sergei (sp?) did a wonderful job organizing the servers (and it was his first time too!) - he and efrda1 planned out all the plates and marked their order, while Aiden and Eli did the decorating. And boy, were the results pretty! It’s not a skill I have, but I am in awe. :-) And then, suddenly it was all pretty much done. We actually stopped and got some eating in! (Even more happily, the clean-up afterwards just magically happened, thanks to Calum and Sorcha and Aiden and Eli and Dmitrii and probably others I’m forgetting or didn’t see. It was so very nice, since I was completely exhausted by that point! I’m not really sure why… I mean, most of the time I was pretty superfluous. Although it’s not like I usually spend all day on my feet… I think I chopped half of half a dozen different things, and maybe washed 2 dishes… other then that I just hovered and set things in motion. *shrug*
The thing I was most concerned about for the day-of turned out not to be a problem at all - I was worried because we had to bring ALL the kitchen tools we used… I was worried we’d not have stuff we needed or I’d forget something. But it really wasn’t a problem, probably because of Sarra and Clariel’s amazing forethought in bringing dishes and pots and pans and such. The only note to myself if I have to deal with this situation again is to bring lots of bowls for holding chopped things - happily disposable bowls worked great for this.
I am really bowled over by all the really nice things people did for me - I mean, Sorcha came from work, and had to go back to work after the event, but still spent most of the afternoon doing dishes! Dame Alys unexpectedly brought decorative marzipan squares and candied orange peels - both OH SO YUMMIE! *happy sigh*. Sarra not only made almost all of the bread, but made the kitchen staff lunch too! (And it was very good, and highly appreciated!) Aiden and Eli brought herbs from their garden for decoration (as well as other decorative touches I never would’ve thought of!) and Calum & Angharad even drove back and forth to the site twice because the pies were forgotten. Plus, Sergei played music for us in the kitchen! I am incredibly blessed by my friends :-D
- (on the table) Bread & butter
- Figs in the French Style (e.g. dried figs backed in white wine)
- A Modern Pottage (spinach with bacon and raisons)
- Roast Chicken sauced with Cilantro Pottage (chicken with a green sauce)
- Rice Pottage
- Stewed Lamb (stewed lamb fried in a honey and vinegar glaze and garnished with fruit)
- Genovese Tort (a nut and fruit torte)
I’d never redacted a recipe before, so figuring out the recipes was initially my biggest concern especially since I was running behind as my Your Wardrobe Unlock’d articles turned out to be much more difficult/time consuming then I expected - but eestep held my hands though the process so it all went surprisingly smoothly. I am not at all sure about the documentation, however. I mean, for the cilantro pottage and the spinach dish we ended up mixing and matching elements from 2-3 similar recipes in the book, and the torte had a long section of the recipe that read like it was “how to create an oven when all you have is a fire” … so I just used an oven. I know how much leeway I allow myself with costumes and interpreting evidence, but I don’t even know how much leeway I’ve taken with the recipes. I mean, what’s considered perfectly good practice, and what is stretching things? Anyway, the recipes (if you can call them that) should be up on the Cleftlands cook’s guild site sometime soon…
Anyway, the actual cooking and feast kitchen stuff again went surprisingly (imo) well - for which I credit the extremely experienced crew who volunteered to help :-). The weekend before the event, eestep and I got together and made the torte. I did a significant amount of shopping at Costco after work on Monday, and then I took the Friday before the event off of work in order to do the rest of the grocery shopping (for which I was slightly over budget *pout* but the event still made money so all is good). Then, that Friday afternoon coffeekitten and efrda1 and Jehanne came over and we made the lamb.
So, by the time we got to the event there were only 4 dishes to make (and the figs were so easy they barely count - put stuff in pot and cook. Done. ). A couple hours were spent cleaning the kitchen and organizing stuff, maybe another hour chopping stuff, and then we all wandered around feeling like something was wrong since there wasn’t really anything else to do until about 2pm!
Sergei (sp?) did a wonderful job organizing the servers (and it was his first time too!) - he and efrda1 planned out all the plates and marked their order, while Aiden and Eli did the decorating. And boy, were the results pretty! It’s not a skill I have, but I am in awe. :-) And then, suddenly it was all pretty much done. We actually stopped and got some eating in! (Even more happily, the clean-up afterwards just magically happened, thanks to Calum and Sorcha and Aiden and Eli and Dmitrii and probably others I’m forgetting or didn’t see. It was so very nice, since I was completely exhausted by that point! I’m not really sure why… I mean, most of the time I was pretty superfluous. Although it’s not like I usually spend all day on my feet… I think I chopped half of half a dozen different things, and maybe washed 2 dishes… other then that I just hovered and set things in motion. *shrug*
The thing I was most concerned about for the day-of turned out not to be a problem at all - I was worried because we had to bring ALL the kitchen tools we used… I was worried we’d not have stuff we needed or I’d forget something. But it really wasn’t a problem, probably because of Sarra and Clariel’s amazing forethought in bringing dishes and pots and pans and such. The only note to myself if I have to deal with this situation again is to bring lots of bowls for holding chopped things - happily disposable bowls worked great for this.
I am really bowled over by all the really nice things people did for me - I mean, Sorcha came from work, and had to go back to work after the event, but still spent most of the afternoon doing dishes! Dame Alys unexpectedly brought decorative marzipan squares and candied orange peels - both OH SO YUMMIE! *happy sigh*. Sarra not only made almost all of the bread, but made the kitchen staff lunch too! (And it was very good, and highly appreciated!) Aiden and Eli brought herbs from their garden for decoration (as well as other decorative touches I never would’ve thought of!) and Calum & Angharad even drove back and forth to the site twice because the pies were forgotten. Plus, Sergei played music for us in the kitchen! I am incredibly blessed by my friends :-D