All Hail Anton Ray and Kathryn of Carnforth, the new heirs to the Principality!House Capuchin Shield2

Stella has been commenting on the feast. Jay is making garlic cheese. Sasha’s schedule has gone berserk and he’s trying to catch up. Gudrun is working on college admission and job-hunting and may have one tied up already! Amor is back in Alaska and hard at work. We haven’t heard from Gogor or Sabrina in a while.

Bread, butter, potted ham

We haven’t done anything official about it, but we’re informally allied with House Silvermists. Their closest members are in Alsea, William and his girls. He was one of the musicians at our Winter Feast and the girls have been helping out a lot! Also, Camin and Ermagerd from Tymberhaven have asked to be allied.

Meetings this week at the normal times.

  • Herb Bunch – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 11am-1pm
  • Sewing Time – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 3-5pm
  • Project Day – At Ancient Light, Sundays, Noon to 6pm
  • Next Potluck – 3/17, 4/21, 5/19, 6/16
  • Winter Feast Date is 2/16/20 (assuming that there is one….)

Here is the direct Portfolio link which has all the past Project Day reports and various projects, original here:  https://housecapuchin.wordpress.com/portfolio/  and new one here:  https://housecapuchin2.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and number three is here: https://housecapuchin3.wordpress.com/portfolio/

Eronric Devon – Will The SCA die out? Will there be Lords and Ladies and Peers and all the rest of what we do, and no Dragons left to fight?

Years ago, An SCA King was doing public service in elementary schools. He visited a school where the teachers had worked up a little chivalry program for the kids to help them be more helpful and reach certain personal and academic goals. The Teachers were all laughing and joking, and that King laughed and joked along with them. They had for the ceremony, a cheesy fire poker as a sword. So the King excused himself for a moment and went out to his car and came back with a real Claymore. And when that King stepped back in to the gymnasium where they were holding the ceremony, and strode to the front, the crowd looked at him and they stopped laughing and talking. He was the King and he was dead serious. And in all dead seriousness and earnestness, he Knighted each of those kids. And then he said “Now you ARE Knights. You have a chance every day to be somebody’s hero…Make it so!”

A year later, that King was invited back to the same school for a new group of kids to receive the accolade. He used the same litany…and every one of those kids spoke the words with him as they were intoned. every kid in that school remembered what he had said from the year prior, word for word. As did many of the teachers…and parents. And THAT is what we are…

We (The SCA) have never been a guarantee of perfection, only a promise of what we as human beings CAN be or at least SHOULD be…and if we can just be that promise that is all any will ask of us. The rest is them and their imagination and the the hope given that in this land where there be Dragons, there are those who wrestle them…

Early Week – It took a bit to get the pix done for last week’s newsletter. I was crazy at the shop all day on Monday and then just crazy tired! So, they got finished and added on Tuesday to last week’s post.

More of the crocks are clean, so those went into the proper box and the pitcher box went onto the shelves. We almost have the shelf on the other side cleared enough for more of the equipment, since we’re going to put the crockpots that we don’t use regularly and the iced tea maker and samovar back there and make a low shelf for some of the odd-shaped baskets, platters and bowls. The personal water bottles that get used for events got boxed and shelved.

I discovered that our big wooden serving bowl has developed a crack. Glue bottle here we come!

Stella chimed in with a suggestion for the feast. We’ll be discussing that on Sunday.

Cookery – Pickled eggs got the last bits added on Tuesday and a small bottle of wimpy pickles got some authority added. We also pulled out a ham, since we were hoping to do potted ham later in the week and it was still frozen. …and on Thursday we did up the potted ham and started a batch of lentil pottage, by doing a broth of the fatty and gristly bits cut off the ham. There’s plenty of meat on them, still. …On Friday, that got chopped fine and added back to the broth after caraway, ground mushrooms, lentils and a bit of water. Eventually, carrots went in, too.

Of course bread had to get made for Sunday, ingredients for the girdle cakes found and a seedcake happened.

Sewing – During the early part of the week Anja kept going on her embroidery and also worked on a few of the kiss-lock pouches, trying to get more done.

No one was in for Sewing on Saturday, so those project happened on Sunday.

Herb Bunch – Mid-week we made a batch of eggshell fertilizer and immediately used it up on the beds out in front of the shop. We’ve been saving shells since last fall.

The Saturday workshop worked on more rosemary, Queen Ann’s lace, cedar, garlic blossoms, sweetgrass and bracken. We’re still trying to get the bulk processed down so things fit on the shelves! We might do spice mixes again this coming week.

…and a funny from Joan Hall on Facebook on Saturday afternoon.  ” I’m browsing through the world’s most pretentious cookbook – The Renaissance of Italian Cooking by Lorenza de’Medici. She is getting on my last nerve. ‘Use only excellent honey. Mine comes from 200 year old apiaries on my estate.’ Well mine comes from a plastic bear, Lorenza. Shove that up your apiary!”

Project Day & Potluck – First up was a loaf of bread. Next was getting a bunch of recipes that are regulars or “keepers” laminated, so we stop losing the copies. After that we needed pea flour for the girdle cakes and to get the cracked wheat soaking for the seed cake.

Laminating recipes so we don’t have to reprint so often

Stella got there first and got her guitar out, but as more people showed she took off, “needing sun”. Amy was there for awhile and Camin and Ermagerd (Tymberhavene) showed up mid-afternoon. We all pulled out projects. Kendra and Dangereuse from Dragon’s Mist got there just before it was time to eat.

Once we got started cooking we did pretty well. The pea flour took what seemed like forever, but it finally got ground. We set out a tray of bread with bacon/blue butter and potted ham, and another tray of pickled things for folks to start with. Amy brought some cheddar popcorn and that got noshed on, too.

Anja made the batter (no, it’s *not* a dough) and started cooking the cakes while Loren warmed the stew and the Tallivent chicken. The girdle cakes (yes, girdle, that’s not a typo) were really well received. Oat and split pea flour are not something we use much of, now, but they were all over in the middle ages. Same with barley flour, which I’m going to have to try, next time. Those flours were cheaper than wheat and more readily available.

The seedcake went into the oven right after the girdle cakes were done. Yes, we used the more period recipe, although it turns out a little dry. Anja went out front to visit and eat, while Loren watched the cake and rested. He brought it out, steaming, when it was finished.

We stopped for the night not long after sunset, since folks had some long rides home.

…and I was concentrating so hard on the cookery that I missed getting pix of the projects!

Potluck Menu 

Starters

  • Bread
  • Bacon/Blue Butter
  • Potted ham
  • Bean pickle (black)
  • Bean pickle (red)
  • Mixed veg pickle
  • Pickled eggs
  • Lemon Water

Main Course

  • Girdle cakes
  • Tallivent Chicken
  • Leftovers stew

Sweets and nibbles

  •  Seedcake – make
  • Lemon Cake
  • Apple Pie
  • Wine – Raspberry

Recipes

Cereal and Legume Girdle Breads

Girdle Cakes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup. wheat, barley or oat flour (used oat)
  • 1 cup pea flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/8 cups water
  • A little oil, butter or lard (for frying the breads)

Method

  1. Mix the flours together, then mix in the salt.
  2. Lightly beat the eggs, then add to the flour along with the water.
  3. Bring the mixture together, then turn out onto a floured surface. (It was a batter, not a dough!)
  4. Using floured hands, take a portion of the mixture and roll it between your hands, then flatten out into a flat patty.
  5. Repeat, until all the blend has been used.
  6. Heat the oil or lard in a non-stick frying pan over a moderate heat.
  7. Brush off any excess flour before sliding the girdle breads into the pan.
  8. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, then turn over and repeat.

Seedcake

  • 1 ½ cups unbleached flour
  • 1 cup cracked wheat flour
  • 1 pkg. yeast
  • 1/8 cup warm (100 degrees) ale
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 4 oz. (1 stick) sweet butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 tbs. seed (crushed anise, caraway, coriander, cardamom, etc. – choose something flavorful & pleasant)
  • ½ – 1 cup milk

Method

    1. Sift together the flours and salt; set aside in large bowl.
    2. Dissolve yeast in warm ale, along with 1/8 tsp. of the flour mixture.
    3. Cream together the butter and sugar.
    4. Beat in eggs and seeds.
    5. Make a well in the flour and add the dissolved yeast.
    6. Fold flour into yeast mixture, then fold in the butter.
    7. Slowly beat in enough milk to make a smooth, thick batter.
    8. Pour batter into an 8″ round greased cake pan.
    9. Bake in middle of oven at 350° F for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
    10. Let cool slightly before turning onto a cake rack.

Seed Cake (Chris-Rachael Oseland, http://kitchenoverlord.com/2014/12/19/how-to-eat-like-a-hobbit-step-3-elvenses/ ) A more modern version, more like a pound cake.

  • 4 eggs
  • ¾ c  butter
  • 1 c sugar
  • 2 c g flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ¼ c almond meal/flour
  • 1 ½ tbsp caraway seeds
  • ¼ cup whole milk
  • 2 1/2 c powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  1. Cream the eggs, butter, and sugar.
  2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
  3. Once they’re well blended, add the almond meal and all important caraway seeds.
  4. Mix the dry ingredients into your bowl of butter.
  5. Splash in the milk. Now give it all a good beating so everything is well blended. You should achieve something the thickness of brownie batter.
  6. Scoop your batter into a well greased 2 pound cake pan. Shake the pan to help settle the batter before baking.
  7. Bake at 350F / 180 C for 50-55 minutes, or until it is both golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Let the cake rest in the pan for 20 minutes before removing it.

Miscellaneous pix

Music – The Baltimore Consort, the Art of the Bawdy Song

John Dowland, the Booke of Songs

Links

Funnies 

Anja, Loren, Stella, Amor (v), Sasha (v), Gudrun (v), Jay (v), Amy, Tymberhavene (2), Dragon’s Mist (2)

divider black grey greek key

Largesse Item Count – (includes gifts, prizes, auction items, etc.)

  • ASXLVII = 24
  • ASXLVIII = 88
  • ASXLIX = 794
  • ASL = 2138
  • ASLI = 731
  • ASLII = 304
  • ASLIII – 111+35=146 plus 25 pouches for block-printing, 8 bookmarkers, 22 unfinished pincushions, 1 sewing kit (except for bone needle), varnished stuff (124)

Total as a Household = 3830 handed off

moving writing pen motifIn ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 3/10/19  (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 3/18/19