We had a fun feast despite the weather! There was plenty of food. Attendance was somewhere in the 20’s, a lot of people bailing at the last minute because of the weather.

There was plenty of help getting things cleaned up and the hall re-set.

The final cookbook

2/11 – The big push for cooking is happening and the freezers and fridges are stuffed! It looks like we have 35 yeses with another 6 or 7 maybes coming. If you’re coming in from a distance and need a place to stay, there’s no unclaimed crash space left, but if you leave a comment below, Anja has a list of nice places to stay in the area. Anja is making up lists for those with allergies of foods to avoid. So far that’s mushrooms and lactose. Again, comment below if you need another list.

2/3 – Most of the pre-cooking is done. We’re in the last stages of getting the pieces together. The next step is to start assembling some of the dishes! There’s baking and fixin’s ahead!

There’ve been some minor changes in the menu.

Menu Winter Feast 2018

Day

On the table full time – Breads/butters/jams – Varieties rotate through as baskets/containers empty.

4:30pm Hall re-set

5pm – 1st course

  • Borscht for the horde (both “hard” and “soft”)
  • Bread/Cheese Soup – Chlebova Polevka
  • Onion/Cabbage/Leek Pottage
  • Lentil pottage
  • Breads
  • Sauces offered for dipping – Spenat, Lentil, Mushroom, Dill, beef/Wine (from roast)

5:30pm – Main course – Beef cooked in wine with onions/mushrooms, Caraway barley with onions, Beet, Leek and Onion salad

5:45pm – Main course – Chicken Stew as a subtlety with the pheasant pelt and “made” head
Baked fowl (Game Hen) egg dumplings (maybe)

6pm – Main course – Caraway pork roast with brined apples, Bread Dumplings with gravy

6:15pm- Main course – Baked salmon with honey carrots, saffron rice

6:30 – Main course – Holoubky

Sweets, afters – 6:45pm

  • Babovka
  • Kolacky
  • Brandied cherries
  • Shrewsbury cakes
  • Rohlicki
  • Zabi Hyby

Drinkables

  • Hydromel
  • Mint water
  • hot mint tea
  • Hot chai
  • Cherry Tea
  • Hot coffee (sigh)

12/28 – Recipes are being parceled out for foods that will be cooked ahead. The schedule is mostly complete.

12/15 Menu is complete

Menu Winter Feast 2018

Day – On the table full time – Breads/butters/jams – Varieties rotate through as baskets/containers empty.

  • Noon – Garlic cheese, salted tvarog and pickled and potted cheese.
  • 1pm – Hot crab and bread
  • 2pm –Fried cheese, & fried sauerkraut with black bread and pickled mushrooms
  • 3pm – Caviar with caraway rye and hard-boiled and pickled eggs
  • 4pm – Pickled Herring

4:30pm Hall re-set

  • 5pm – 1st course
  • Borscht for the horde (both “hard” and “soft”)
  • Bread/Cheese Soup Chlebova Polevka
  • Onion/Cabbage/Leek Pottage
  • Lentil pottage
  • Breads

5:30pm – Main course – Beef cooked in wine with onions/mushrooms, Caraway barley with onions, Beet, Leek and Onion salad

5:45pm – Main course – Chicken Stew as a subtlety with the pheasant pelt and “made” head
Baked fowl (Game Hen)

6pm – Main course – Caraway pork roast with brined apples – http://www.beetsandbones.com/russian-brined-apples/ Dumplings with gravy

6:15pm- Main course – Baked salmon with honey carrots

Sweets, afters – 6:30pm

  • Babovka
  • Kolacki
  • Plum vareniki
  • Brandied cherries
  • Shrewsbury cakes
  • Rohlicki

Drinkables

  • Hydromel
  • Mint water
  • hot mint tea
  • Hot chai
  • Hot coffee (sigh)

12/1 – Test runs of foods should be completed this month.

11/1 – Working on getting the special flours for various foods. We’ve had to dump the alcoholic stuff from the menu. Insurance for the hall for us would be $600. 😦

10/1 – Test runs of foods are 1/2 done, more to come

8/1/17 – Walk-through on the hall done! Also, they have the hall check and the cleaning deposit check (separate so they can hand us back the cleaning deposit if we leave the place clean.) We still have to find out how much alcohol insurance is going to cost. Loren’s going to talk to our insurance guy this week, now that we have the info.

Ok, hall specs…. 48 x 19 feet for the main hall with the kitchen at the far end (off to the side) Occupancy rated for 70 people. West-facing window would make a great spot for a solar. 

Handicapped parking for two cars and access with ramp through the kitchen. One regular bathroom, one handicapped with plenty of space for farthingales. 

… otherwise the hall itself has 6 steps up and not a whacking lot of parking. I’m not sure how many spaces are hall and how many are fire hall at the moment, but there are other close-by parking lots.

Plenty and more than enough chairs to fill that space. 22 banquet tables. 10 or so (I think, at least 8) benches for those tables. You can see the benches in the West pic above. 

One long wall (the south wall) needs to be covered because of the fire hall view, a bulletin board and some very mundane displays. We have a striped tent wall to do this with. There are rafters to hang things from and cuphooks every 2-3 feet all around the hall. There’s a good spot for the House banner, but we’re going to need some more hangings, since Loren and I have sold most of the shop ones that we’ve used in the past. 

Kitchen is a nice space. 4 counters. 11 (or so) outlets, no restrictions on power usage. Nice big sink. Regular stove and oven. Standard fridge with small freezer. We have use of two coffee urns, but the more of our stuff is in our own dishes and take ’em home to wash, the better off we’ll be! The door in the east wall (handicapped access) has to be left unblocked, so we may be stashing coolers in strange spots, maybe even outside on the porch where the handicapped ramp is. 

We have the hall reserved from 8am to 10pm, but I can push that later, if we need to (technically until midnight is what we’re paying for.)

No smoking on the premises. No covered area nearby for smoking.

…and I invited the hall lady to the feast. 🙂

Menu as of 7/26/17

Day Board

  • Noon – Breads/butters/jams and lamb meatballs in sweet/sour sauce (if we don’t do fowl)
  • 1pm – Lunch – Fried cheese, & fried sauerkraut with black bread and pickled mushrooms
  • 2pm – Caviar with caraway rye and hard-boiled eggs
  • 3pm – Hot crab and munchies a la Boris?
  • 4pm – Pickled Herring and add pickles to the breads

5pm – 1st course

  • Borscht for the horde
  • Small amount chicken soup
  • Breads

5:30pm – Main course – Caraway pork roast with brined apples – http://www.beetsandbones.com/russian-brined-apples/

  • 5:45pm – Main course – Baked salmon with Saffron rice and some kind of veg
  • 6pm – Main course – Baked fowl (what can we get?) with Caraway barley with onions or possibly lamb/veg stew
  • 6:15pm- Main course – Beef cooked in wine with onions/mushrooms

6:30pm – Sweets, afters

Drinkables

  • Mint water or hot mint tea
  • Something sweet for the kiddos…. Sekanjabin?
  • Kvass
  • Beer
  • Mead
  • Becherovka
  • slivovice

Where the idea came from Gogor and Anja have been talking about Slavic foods for several years, ever since he was actually living out here. We had some other experimenting to do first, but this year we have enough for a full-on menu, so we went for it.

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