House Capuchin Shield2For the life of me, I have no clue how this week rushed past so fast!

Many things happened this week from the wax processing that started us off to the foods for the potluck. All are below.

Meetings should all be on time this week. Cheese is likely to be Tuesday evening.

  • 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
  • Cheese and Wine happens irregularly, usually announced with little notice on our Facebook group.
  • Next Potluck – 7/21, 8/18, 9/15, 10/20, 11/17, 12/15
  • Winter Feast Date is 2/16/20, Theme German Renaissance

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/

The Flying McFlandry Guard – Mistress Arlys o Gordon

No shit, there we were…. the MacFlandry Guard was doing a drill one morning at an event down in The Summits. The site was a beautiful little park surrounded by low mountains (extinct volcanos, mostly. The overall effect was that of a bowl. I was a bannerman that day, and was carrying a huge and beautiful banner made by Dame Guiliana Benevoli. The bannermen were in the middle of the group.

All is business as usual until a freak wind blows down. I feel it rush past my ankles, then move up my back, heard a sharp FOOSH!!! and then next thing I knew, I was 4 feet off the ground, holding onto a banner pole and making like a sailplane. Someone behind me yelled “AIRBORNE!!!!” Col. Evan, at the front, snaps round in an instant,gasps, “Arlys!!!” and those closest to me close in so I won’t go drifting off to Portland. Meanwhile, the wind still has me at 4 feet of elevation. I did not drop the banner because the winds were very strong that day and a free banner could have done immense amount of damage (Sottish tiddlywinks. Not on my watch!)

Col. Evan meanwhile grabbed me by the waist and tried pulling me down. The sail held fast and had other ideas, Some of the halberdeers tried smacking at it, to no avail, and then they tried flattening the huge thing against its pole. (I have a deep trust for these guys who were handling seriously sharp pointy objects in my direction.) At least they succeeded–the banner released, I released and promptly fell on Col. Evan who still had me by the waist. I am taller and a bit heavier and heard an “oof!” from him as we hit the ground.

“Arlys?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Don’t do that again.”

“No sir.”

Early Week – We kept going on the wax. The first “cake” was ready to be pulled, so more wax went in. More on this below in its own section. Other than hands-busy stuff that’s about it.

Cookery – On Tuesday Anja was doing some more research, trying to track down the beet and horseradish salad/sauce. She found a period one, so went ahead and tried it, adapting from both it and a recipe from Tres Bohemes (see below).

On Thursday she set up the pork roast, so it would be finished and put by for Sunday, rather than having to roast it that day along with the other trial dishes. We also got the dehydrator going on the lees of the cordials that got made back in May and made a batch of marzipan. Also, apples and a watermelon got picked up for apples with sweet cicely and watermelon tea.

The dehydrated stuff from the cordials started getting ground on Saturday, but the grinder broke. <sigh> Apples got started in a crockpot and a batch of girdle cakes, made from pea and oat flour. These were “stout” as Loren put it, chewy, but very tasty. We also added a little garlic to them.

Mostly finished – There still look to be too many white spaces….

Sewing – Embroidery Thursday & Friday evening, plus some pieces got washed on Friday.

The birth sampler is nearly done. There are some small white spaces to be filled, but fewer than a dozen and none more than 3/4 inch.

Cleaned up.

Beeswax – We kept going on the beeswax on Monday, the first stuff was a very thin cake, so we kept adding and melting as the day went on. It was going to need to be strained, at least a little. The pot that we’ve been using suddenly decided that it was no longer going to keep integrity, so we had a sudden, “Gleep! Halp! Grab the other pot!” …. but no real harm done. …and the rusted-through pot became the spot for the goop that got strained off. That will go in with some other reclaimed wax later.

The “cake” got washed and put by on Wednesday, along with the “reclaimables”.

Dehydrated Parsleys

Herb Bunch – Mostly there was some tending during the week, then on Saturday morning, Anja did some harvesting again, mostly for the sweet cicely for the apples, but also some cress and sorrel for sandwiches and to knock down the amazing huge parsleys and cilantro. The oregano got weeded meticulously, since an weird plant invaded all the pots that had been at Jeanne’s and this one we’d missed. Oddly, it looks like it also had some poppies growing in it. We’ll see.

Stella stopped by Saturday afternoon to chat for a bit. She’s looking a lot better, but still kinda pale under her tan.

Later that evening the parsleys went into the dehydrator so they could be saved for later.

 

Project Day – We had a batch of younguns sanding wooden animals for a little bit, while Loren was making a couple of pumpernickel loaves. After that Anja headed into the back to check on the apples and set out the potted cheese and the butter that were coming up to edible temp on the table.

…and just after 2pm the power went out at the shop. It didn’t come back until 4:45. That put back quite a bit of what we had planned. The youngsters took off when the power went. We sat and talked because there was very little light indoors and it was too windy outside to do anything. At 5 we started the cooking that should have been started around 2pm.

Potluck – We didn’t eat until 9pm because of the power being off until nearly 5pm. First we had to sort out some of the stuff that didn’t get done between 3 and 4, which was mostly finding things (yeah, the back of the shop was dark during the power outage) and then get the butter and water heating for spaetzle. It was 7pm by the time that was even ready to cook. I had intended to get the water heating at 3pm.

Potluck Menu 

1st Course

  • Bread, pumpernickle
  • Potted Cheese
  • Garlic & Herb butter
  • black bean pickle
  • Multi-veg pickle

Main Course

  • Pork Roast in onions and caraway
  • Apples with sweet cicely (trial run)
  • Beet/horseradish Sauce (trial run)
  • Spätzle (trial run)
  • Stewed root vegetables with caraway, mustard and greens. (trial run)
  • Pickled beets

Sweet Course

  • Marzipan (done)

Recipes

Spätzle – (traditional German) 

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 3 eggs
  • butter for finishing

Method

  1. In a large bowl mix together the flour and salt. Add the water, milk and eggs to a measuring cup and whisk together well.
  2. Pour into the bowl with the flour and immediately start vigorously stirring the batter with a wooden spoon until there are no more lumps and you start seeing bubbles forming. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
  3. When ready to make the Spätzle bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add a knob of butter to it.
  4. Place a coarse metal grater (or a special Spätzle maker if you own one) over the pot. Add about 1/3 cup of batter on top of the grater and gently stroke over it with the back of a spoon. Remove the grater and let the Spätzle cook until they come to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and drop into the hot pan. Proceed the same way with the remaining batter, adding more butter to the pan as needed.

Giano Balestriere I can’t confirm spätzle specifically, but there is a late 1400s recipe that involves an egg-based dough pulled into pieces and boiled (in milk, though). That comes reasonably close, and variations must have existed. Most pasta recipes that survive from period Germany are for knife-cut noodles.

Giano Balestriere Take good white flour and make dough with egg whites. Have boiling milk ready in a pan and pull the dough into little pieces, throwing them in as the milk boils. It must be salted beforehand. Also add fat. See that it stays worm-shaped. Do not oversalt it. Serve it.(Dorotheenkloster MS#150) After Bach, Volker: The Kitchen, Food and Cooking in Reformation Germany

Beet Sauce (redacted from Rumpolt)

Ingredients

  • 3 beets, trimmed & peeled
  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup vinegar
  • 1 1×3 inch horseradish root, peeled and grated (last inch was cut and added to beets)
  • ¼ cup Muscat
  • ¼ cup Tbsp. cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • ¼ tsp whole coriander
  • ¼ tsp whole aniseed
  • 1 tsp whole caraway
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • pinch of sea salt

Tools

  • Saucepan
  • Peeler
  • Microplane
  • Masher
  • Knife
  • Stirring spoon
  • Glass canning jar

Directions

  1. Place the beets in a medium saucepan and cover with water and first amount of vinegar.
  2. Peel and grate horseradish.
  3. Cut last inch and add to beets.
  4. Bring to a boil and then cover and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.
  5. Put grated horseradish in jar and add wine and vinegar, spices, salt and sugar and let stand.
  6. Drain beets and mash in the pot.
  7. Then add the beets to the jar and stir well.
  8. Refrigerate overnight so all the flavors have a chance to blend well and stir again before each use.

Store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Source

Beet Sauce – Rumpolt

Ein New Kochbuch. Marx Rumpolt. 1581, Transcribed by Dr. Thomas Gloning; Translated by Gwen Catrin von Berlin.

Rote Ruben eyngemacht mit klein geschnittenen Merrettich/ Aniss/Coriander/ und ein wenig Kuemel/ sonderlich wenn die Ruben geschnitten/ gesotten mit halb Wein und halb Essig.

 Red beets preserved with small cut horseradish/ anise/ coriander/ and a little caraway/ special if the beets are cut/ marinated in half wine and half vinegar.

Bohemian Beet and Horseradish Relish – Červená řepa s křenem  BY KYTKA MARCH 27, 2018

Ingredients

  • 3 beets, scrubbed and trimmed
  • 1 6 to 8 inch horseradish root, peeled and grated
  • 2 Tbsp. vinegar (Yes, you can use apple cider vinegar to make it healthier)
  • 1 tsp. sugar, brown sugar or honey
  • inch of sea salt

Directions

  1. Place the beets in a medium saucepan and cover completely with cold water.
  2. Bring to a boil and then cover and cook until tender, about 35 minutes.
  3. Drain and set aside to cool.
  4. As it is draining, peel and grate your horseradish.
  5. When the beets have cooled, grate them into a bowl, or better yet, pulse in your food processor, realizing it will look like a bloody mess all over the place and there will be a lot of clean up!
  6. Then add the beets, grated horseradish, vinegar, brown sugar or honey, and a pinch of salt to a large plate or mixing bowl and blend the rich goodness all together.
  7. Work together until well combined and voila! You now have Bohemian beet and horseradish relish.
  8. Transfer the delicious and colorful concoction to a glass container.
  9. Refrigerate overnight so all the the flavors have a chance to blend well.

The best part is that you can store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

This is quite loud! It’s good, but you have to use it in similar amounts to mustard or some other spicy sauce. Don’t eat a whole heaping teaspoonful!

Apples with Sweet Cicely

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 pounds cooking apples
  • honey or other sweetener to taste, about ¼ cup honey
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 teaspoons minced sweet cicely

Core and chop apples. Put into a crockpot and add honey. Cook overnight. Use a potato masher to roughly mash down. Stir the sweet cicely into the apples and cool in the pan. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream.

Miscellaneous pix

Photo of the coins from last week with what they are.

An assortment of late Middle Ages coins – from left to right…Fatimid Egyptian fractional dinars. Prince Bohemond Tripoli/Antioch, Groschen. Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Kingdom of Jerusalem-King Almalric, denier. Baldwin III/King-Kingdom of Jerusalem Denier. Saladin Half Dirham

Music – German Renaissance song 2

German Renaissance song 3

German Renaissance song 4

Links

King John was not a good man —
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days, and days, and days.

Funnies 

Anja, Loren, House Silvermists (v), Gudrun (v), Stella, 3 extra kids that walked into the shop

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 – 146
  • ASLIV – 41 plus 2 puppets, 20 powder fort packets, 25 pouches for block-printing, 1 medium pouch, 8 bookmarkers, 5 in-process kisslock pouches, 20 unfinished pincushions, 1 sewing kit (except for bone needle), varnished stuff (124)

Total as a Household = 3870 handed off

moving writing pen motifIn ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 5/30/19 & published 6/17/19 (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 6/17/19