Preparing for history

I've been pretty quite on this blog lately, though I've been posting on my other blog more often. It's not that we haven't been doing homeschool related to post; I just haven't managed to keep up with posting about it. *L* Ah, well.

With summer here, we've been enjoying some of the local festive events, with more to come. We're also planning and working on an event of our own. This weekend, we're having our first historical food evening. I'm trying to start up a group among my foodie friends centered on friendship and re-creating historical eating. The idea is for different families in the group to host an evening, perhaps as often as once a month, with each gathering based on a specific time period/theme. The hosting family comes up with the theme, provides the location, and does the organizing while everyone who can make it brings a dish or two that's as close to historically accurate as can be replicated.

For our first attempt, we chose a Brother Cadfael theme. This puts the time period in the early to mid-1100's. While the location is England and Whales, the Brother Cadfael character had a well traveled life, so dishes from other countries would be quite appropriate.

Only one family was able to make it for this weekend - though that had as much to do with cat allergies as interest, unfortunately. That still makes for 7 people, which I think is just fine for a first time! We won't be able to do a whole lot for setting the mood - I'd love to dress up and all, but we just won't be able to do that. Mostly, it'll be centred around the food.

Which means that today, I've been baking trenchers. A typical trencher was a slice or three of thick, day old bread that were used instead of plates. I chose, however, to use this recipe. I've got one in the oven right now, two more in different stages of rising, one almost cool enough to freeze - and one we've already eaten like regular bread with supper. Trenchers weren't normally eaten by the diners. Instead, they would be tossed to the dogs or given to the poor. These ones will be quite edible, if anyone is hungry enough. ;-)

One of the dishes our guests will be bringing is a stewed chicken, though it has beef in it as well. I look forward to trying it. The girls will be making sweets for the end - Eldest has found a couple of recipes already.

I will be cheating on a few things. Wine was the usual drink of the time period, and one of our favorite grocery



... back again. I now have two trenchers cooling, one in the oven, and one last one shaped for its second rising.

Where was I?

Oh, right. Our favorite specialty grocery store carries a non-alcoholic spiced wine that's perfect for the theme. The recipe for it may well go back to the time period; this recipe sounds like it would produce a very similar drink. They even carry a brand of "small ale" that would work quite well, if we wanted to go that route. They also carry a line of forno-type breads (in fact, I think they really are baked in a forno) that are perfect for the evening, as well as cheese types that go back to that period and earlier. Some spiced wine, bread, cheese and some fruit and we've got a decent meal all on its own.

We'll be having only three "removes" (courses), so it won't be a big medieval feast by any stretch. Brother Cadfael, after all, was a monk and generally had simple fare, though with the character's adventures, he dined with the noble set as well.

The first remove will include a Welsh leek soup, with bread, herbed butter (using herbs from our own balcony garden), cheeses and probably fruit, depending on what I can find that would suit the time period. The second remove will have the chicken stew, but I still have to decide on the salad and side dish to go with it. This is where the trenchers will be used, though I will have plates under them, too. ;-) The final remove will be the sweets - I don't know where my daughter found the recipes, so I'll link to them later, unless they find other recipes they prefer. Edlerflower Worms and a Strawberry Tart are the plan. I think we can get elderflowers at a health food store.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. It should be fun. :-)