Bread mentioned in earlier post

More bread attempts
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

Finally uploaded pictures from the loaf mentioned here.

Click on photo to see it larger, the next one in the set is the inside of the loaf so you can see the crumb improvement.

The Grand Thing: A Great Weekend

Had a fabulous time, visited with many of my very favorite people, cooed at a baby, met a rescued corgi and its people, cooked, ate, drank, and chillaxed above all.

We managed to set up our tent -- yes, finally a medieval tent! It worked well and even though I'm already plotting the upgrade (yes, after one camping trip!) I also still think ours (a wedge from midwesttent.com) has many features to recommend it. The major one being we have tons of space inside, but the two of us can set it up and take it down without too much trouble. Huge thanks to Ref for his help with the ridgepole. You think 2am sewing is bad? I have reached a new personal best with building tent poles on site. Whee.

I didn't cook any food this weekend but I did make two beverages over the fire: barley water and hipocras. The barley water had whole (hulled) barley, honey, "currants", and fennel seed, and was simmered for a fairly long time (at least an hour). I actually reused everything (except I added new honey) to make a second batch the next day, which worked quite well. The hipocras was made from a bottle of red wine, about 3/4 cup sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 1/2 tsp galangal (chips), 4 pods long pepper, and 1/2 tsp cubeb, all simmered very gently in my pipkin for about 15 minutes. The hipocras was a huge hit and I will definitely make that again on a cold evening while camping. Oh, I also made a salad which went over very well even with those who are not medieval food enthusiasts. I used a bag of spring greens mix, a bag of baby lettuce, a bag of mache, and herbs from our garden (sorrel, sage, mint, and oregano), everything torn up fine, then dressed it with walnut oil, verjuice, salt, and pepper. It was delicious and it PASSED THE ANNE TEST! Yes, my lady has requested that I make her this same salad again (though she liked it better with lemon juice in the dressing), as often as possible. Yay :)

We also did some serious stuff acquisition. Anne actually asked me if we could buy a chest (twist my arm!!!) for all of our kitchen stuff / food so we bought one together from Milo. It's great, totally worth it. Then Svava mentioned that she might be getting rid of their brazier now that they have a new one and I offered to buy it from her. It came home with me! EEEEEEE! Long have I coveted a firepit, and long have I lusted over this particular design! SCORE! Oh, and I bought a really cool hand carved wooden bowl that has a handle and fits surprisingly well on my head. Anne remarked that I seem to classify everything in the world into "can be used as a hat" and "can not be used as a hat" and she may be right. Then, on top of all this, Katrine gave Anne an apron dress that needed a new home. It fits her completely perfectly and looks gorgeous, and I can't wait to use it as a pattern for future ones (as it fits so well). And yet, with all of this, we still managed to get everything in the car on the way home! That was the biggest miracle of the weekend.

I also finally got to play "spear the beer" -- well, actually I played "spear the can of soda water" to keep myself from being sticky and stinky. I managed to kill one on my very first try! I wasn't able to repeat that feat (took many throws to kill my next one), but I feel like I might be getting the hang of it.

What a great weekend. I'm so stoked for the rest of the season. I need to build a dayshade, I think, and I'm going to sew a better ground cloth for our tent (and buy some poles -- we still just don't trust the ones we built to not fail and kill us), and then... well, then I might actually have the encampment I've long dreamed of. that's almost a scary thought.

Food at Grand Thing

We're going to Grand Thing IV (Stromgard) this weekend, and I'm super excited. We're camping with a great household and we're responsible for one lunch for everybody. We decided to do kind of a Plowman's Lunch inspired thing -- being surrounded by Norse types I find my urge to be all Anglophilic overwhelming ;-) Of course, I ended up not really sticking to the theme perfectly, but overall I think we've managed to come up with a menu that is English-inspired, reasonably period, and seasonal, with the added bonus of being really easy for folks to grab on the way to other adventures. Here's what we're bringing:
-Hard boiled eggs (salt and thoroughly modern mustard as condiments)
-Bread (sourdough)
-Irish butter (just in case anyone wants something on the bread)
-Cheese (two types of cheddar, chevre, and I think Anne got some sliced provolone and maybe something else Italianish)
-Salami (okay so this is not really very English)
-Sliced (lunch meat) roast beef
-Salad (baby lettuce, spring mix, mache, and herbs from our garden, with a dressing of walnut oil and verjuice plus salt and pepper if anyone wants it)
-Fresh berries (strawberries and blueberries) -- they really aren't QUITE seasonal yet, but they looked so tasty at the store and I love fruit so there you have it

I'm not really bringing anything to cook, in spite of my usual excitement over fire cooking. Actually, that's not true, I did bring stuff to cook: beverages. I brought two bottles of red wine that I want to turn into hipocras, and I brought barley and raisins of corinth plus some honey to turn into barley water.

Can you tell I'm excited???

Rose Drink

Here is my version of the rose drink mentioned in the previous post.

2 cups (approximate) rose petals -- fresh wild highly scented ones
about 5 cups of water
honey to taste

Let rose petals soak in water for a night and a day. Strain out the petals, and add honey to taste (I only used a little).

Result: fairly tasty! The first sip had me thinking "Okay, this is just kind of weird," but then it kind of grew on me. It's refreshing. Very floral -- if you hate rosewater you will hate this ('cause it is rose water after all...) but not overpowering.

Final verdict: Will make again. The petals still have a lot of scent, so I'm actually going to see if I can bring them along to the event we're going to this weekend and get a second batch out of them.

Non alcoholic bevvy I'm itching to try!

Found this one at this collection of medieval non alcoholic beverages:

"Rose Soda / Lavender Drink

Adapted from _The 'Libre de Diversis Medicinis' in the Thornton Manuscript (MS. Lincoln Cathedral, A.5.2)_. Edited by Margaret Sinclair Ogden. Published for the Early English Text Society by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. Amen House, E.C. 4. England. 1938. Text circa early 1400 CE.

1 part rose/lavender petals
2 parts water
2 parts sugar/honey

Soak a number of petals in a pitcher of water holding twice as much water as petals for one night. Press, but not squeeze, the water from the petals and reuse them as needed. Mix into the water enough honey or sugar as to taste, and serve cold."

I did some poking around online and I think the correct title of the original source is actually the Liber de Diversis Medicinis, and it's a 15th century English work. Wikipedia has some limited information on Thornton, the scribe behind this work.

I may try to pursue the research on this further, tracking down an original. At the very least, I am for sure going to make this beverage!

Hearth Night: Outdoor Edition

We journeyed to Svava and Ref's last night for outdoor fire cooking in their new completely badass firepit. As always, it was fun and we made some good food! We also feasted so heavily on snacks that we were not really able to consume any of the food we made. Hmm. Some modifications of the form suggest themselves to me: instead of after work on a Friday, we ought to start our day at noon on a Saturday. That way, when we gorge on snacks that's lunch and whatever we actually cook can be dinner.

And then of course after I started thinking about that I realized that it's almost camping season and I got super excited! Fire cooking all summer long! eeee!

More mead

I did indeed "rack" my dandelion mead again. It appears to be progressing nicely, I'll probably let it sit at least until Grand Thing (Memorial Day Weekend), when I'll give it a taste and either drink it or let it stand.

I also started a half gallon batch of my favorite basic metheglyn (spiced mead). I brought 4 pints of water and a "bear" of honey to a rolling boil, turned it down a little, and skimmed the scum. Once the scum was mostly done rising I added the juice and zest of a lemon, a tablespoon of chipped ginger, and a nutmeg (roughly chopped) and let this simmer (covered) for about 10 minutes. I let it cool to "blood heat" and then pitched the yeast (leftover from the dandelion batch). Right now it's in a covered ceramic bowl, tonight I will siphon it into my half-gallon jug and add a fermentation lock. Yeah, I finally bought one -- it was only $2, so I figured why not :)

I think I'll let this work two weeks, then bottle it and let it age 2 weeks. Again, we'll see if this one is ready by Grand Thing.

This is definitely one of my favorite recipes, the lemon-ginger-nutmeg flavors go well together. It's an adaptation of the SCA-famous Sir Michael of York Mead that you'll find in the Known World Handbook (and elsewhere). It's quite heavily spiced, so you may find you want to only add half the quantities I use.

I have all the supplies for a gallon batch of rhodomel, mead with roses or rose hips (I'm using hips). Really looking forward to this one!

Possible basket weaving discovery

Hmm, I'm kind of too lazy to try to harvest my own willow, but I wonder if I could just use dried willow being sold as a home decor item, as at Ikea. This has potential, I think.

If you're in the Portland area, Cascadia Wild is hosting an ivy basket workshop on Monday. Here are the deets:

You can buy processed basketry materials from various sources. But for practicing, nothing is easier to obtain than our persistent pest, invasive English ivy.

Where? 3945 SE Hawthorne Blvd
When? 4 May 2009
Time? 7-9pm
Who? You!!!

As a reminder, this is a fee free event;however, there will be a $3-5 charge for supplies. You are welcome to bring your own supplies as well.