We had the household workshop this Saturday which was fairly productive and much fun. Randalin and Francesca came up and spent Saturday night. Keina came early, but had to leave because of work. William, Catherine and Father Gregory came locally, and Margaret ditched her in-laws to come. William started work on a 16th cent. leather hat, which is almost finished. Margaret began work on a 16th cent. wire brimmed coif in linen, Francesca reworked a wool 14th cent. hood to make it more period with fabric buttons, and Randalin worked on a Persian hat. We did "bring a dish" periodesque dinner that was fabulous, and we drank 6 bottles of wine.Much fun was had by all.
My camera actually got fixed and returned to me by Kodak at no charge (it was under warranty). I consider this a minor miracle. Apparently the battery was broken and wouldn't recharge.
The new dog, Bella, is a little joy, but she is so not potty trained. After a week of working with her to no avail,I am resigned that this will take longer than I had hoped. I'm crate/confinement training at present. She is confined to a half bath when I'm at work with a nice crate with blankets, water dishes, and pee pads. Of course, Melia, who is still jealous, hasn't helped matters. The first day Bella was here, my fully trained Melia peed on the rug to show the new dog where to go. Deep sigh. On the up side, Bella is showing Melia how to play with other dogs, and Melia has moments of actually enjoying the new dog on the block. Bella is responding positively but slowly to other training. She is better at coming when called, is adjusting to her new schedule pretty well, and is learning to sit on command. She still hates getting her teeth brushed, but tolerates it better now that she understands that the good treats come out when it's done. She has such a good disposition it's impossible to be mad at her.

Having a whole work week off is awesome! I got so much done. I have finished a new costume for myself except for the hem, which I'll have someone help me pin up tomorrow. It's a linen-silk blend that is very linen looking in periwinkle. It's a transitional cotehardie to houppeland in the Italian style--not fitted but with a scoop neckline and liripipe sleeves. I intended it as a Pennsic costume to wear over a simple chemise or linen kirtle, but now that it's made, I think it will be more versatile. It will look good over my wool cotehardie that I just made and several other underdresses I already have. It's full enough to fit comfortable over heavier clothes in cold weather. Yea! I recycled an old linen surcoat for the trim on the new costume, and reused some of the undamaged linen to make--you guessed it--more dog clothes.
The new dog, Bella, needs clothes too, and she loves, loves, loves clothes. She likes to wear clothes all the time. So she's getting a heraldic coursing coat and a silk coat lined in quilted fabric. All those fabric scraps I didn't know what to do with are becoming very cool dog costumes. I added some chest straps to Melia's heraldic silk mantle so that it will actually stay in place when she walks. At least I hope this will work. I've also decided to make them coordinated Meridien outfits. Black velvet with a silver crown for Melia, and (fake) cloth of silver with black velvet stars for Bella.
I also wrote an article I had promised for Master Alexander's Beacon Herald's Handbook on how to write Kingdom law. I sent it off to him, but I'm not sure if it's slanted the way he needed it be after talking to him. Won't be hard to rework though. The basic format is the same, but I may need to use a different type of example if it is to apply to just herald's stuff.
I've done about half the reasearch I need on my 16th cent. Italian Pastry class that I'm going to teach at Black Gryphon, and the handout is mostly done. I'm waiting on my copy of the Scappi translation to arrive to finish it up. I sure hope people actually show up for this, being as it is at 6AM in the kitchen on Saturday.
My mother and I had Thankgiving dinner at a Chinese buffet. It was actually a lot of fun. They even had roast duck in honor of the holiday. Not having to cook meant I could lie on the sofa with the dogs watching the Macy's Thankgiving Day parade and the big US dog show.
Today, THL Catherine and I hit the stores for some Black Friday power shopping. I got a ton of clothes. I was in desperate need of everything, work and casual. So that was a success.
Tomorrow is the household workshop here, so it will be a busy day for me. I need to get the house ready with a bit of straightening up, cooking my part of the food, and getting everthing pulled together for a day of hats and headdresses,then a period pot-luck for dinner, and two overnight guests.
On Sunday I really need to mow my lawn--hopefully for the last time, then start packing for Magna Faire. Whew!

I'm back from Castle Wars--lots of fun. Melia the amazing Iggy had a blast even if she didn't quite get the coursing thing yet. She understood that there was a treat in that bag, but didn't understand why she was supposed to chase it when it's going to come back anyway. We'll be doing some training at home with that. Staying in a motel was the plan. It was very cold at night and poured down rain during the night and all day today. My field pavilion got packed in the afternoon bone dry--many thanks to Randalin (who got an Argent Comet in Court!) to helping put up and pack tent and for contrubuting to our--opnce again enought for a small army--lunch. I had lots of great comments on the new outfit, especially the hunting hat. My worries about not being able to move my arms enough in the new wool cotehardie were unfounded--I took down a tent in it. The wool is just stretchy enough to make movement failry easy and comfortable, and because it's a little looser than a fancy court dress, it all just worked out fine. All in all I was very happy with the whole outfit.
I took a long detour on the way home, by way of Nashville, and picked up the new dog. Bella is a real sweetie pie. She's seal (sort of dark brown) with white boots, chest and tip of tail. She's about 8-9 pounds, and could stand to put on a little weight. She loves everyone, including my Melia. Melia, on the other hand, is very jealous and insecure at the moment. She keeps giving me filthy looks. I think after an adjustment period, they'll be fine. Bella wants to play with Mellie, but Mellie doesn't really know how since she's always been an only dog. Once she learns to play, it will all be good. There hasn't been any violence or even snapping, which is a good sign.
I got the car completely unpacked, the dog stuff sorted out, the cooler emptied, and the dishes done. I'm thinking long bath with good scotch, then bed. I have all this week off from work--yea! But I have lots to do as well.

I managed to break another camera while I was taking pictures of the finished dog mantle. Sigh. Now I have to ship it back to Kodak (it's only 4 months old), so they can tell me that they won't fix it, so my extended warantee from Staples will kick in. So, I am without camera throughout the holiday season.
However, my memory card plugs right into my computer, so I have the photos I took today, which are here.

We'll have it at Castle Wars this next week-end for court. Speaking of Castle Wars, since the weather report is grim--cold and rainy--Melia and I are staying at the HOJO. I'm still going to set up a nice field pavilion with her crate and my table and chair, but we aren't sleeping in cold and wet. Frankly, I'm not sure I could have gotten everything I needed for camping in the car, especially since I would have has to bring a lot of food and a way to make it hot. My bed fills half the car and her crate isn't small. Hopefully the rain will hold off until after the hound coursing.
Thanks everyone for your comments on the new dog front. I have contacted the rescue agency, and a new dog just went into rescue in Nashville--6-7 year old seal/black, 10 lb. female. I'm in touch with the foster mom, who says she is sweet as pie and loves everyone despite coming from a neglectful and abusive situation. She still has to get a clean bill of health from the vet and get a teeth cleaning, but it looks good. I submitted my application yesterday. Keeping fingers crossed.

OK, I'm considering getting another Italian Greyhound. I adore my sweet Melia, and she is much better about the separation anxiety that she had when I first got her. But I can't help but think that she might be a lot happier with another doggie companion while I'm at work, or elsewhere not at home. And yes, I looked at the rescue website today. There's an elderly (13 years old) female whose been in a doggie foster home for over a year with no one wanting to adopt her. She has hearing and vision problems, but is otherwise healthy, house broken for both pee pads and outside, and a teeny tiny 7 pounds. Mellie is very social with other dogs and is particularly gentle with animals smaller than herself (except squirrels--she want to eat them), so I don't see a problem there.
Comments from friends wanted.

Wool cotehardie is finished. Here are pics.

 and a lacing detail

I have done some of the embroidery on the dog mantle. The chain stitching to finish off the applique and the black detail work are finished.I'm going to embroider enter and leaves on the roses, and then I can sew in the lining and finish the details.

Well, all my projects are getting worked on, but progress is slow. Dang that real job getting in my way.
I've started putting together the recipes for the Italian Renaissance breakfast at Black Gryphon. I'll need to do a test run on the herb tortas since I've modified my original recipe quite a bit to make them half the size and not quite as expensive. I can hardly wait to try the cream of wheat made with almond milk--yum. Sounds like some things to test on my household at the workshop at the end of the month! Once I'm happy with the recipes, I'll start putting together the pastry class outline and hand-outs.
We are having a head gear workshop the Saturday after Thanksgiving followed by a period bring a dish dinner for the household. People are bringing and developing hats and other head coverings, and hopefully getting some made.
My wool cotehardie is inching towards completion--I have 12 eyelets left to do on the front for lacing. Then I'll make the fingerloop braid to lace it with. Then I'll hem it. I'm hoping all of these things will be done this week-end. Once everything else is complete, I'll decide if I want to screw around with the sleeves any more. Maybe next week-end I can put in some serious time on the doggy mantle. I have to do all the embroidery before I sew in the lining, and with some concerted effort, I could feasibly get that done in two days--maybe.
The next week-end is Castle Wars. I still don't know how I'm going to fit everything in my car since I'm taking the pup and her kennel takes up so much space. Plus I have to take a tent, my bed, a camp stove and food, cooler, as well as all the normal stuff one takes to an event. I'm going to do some food sharing with Randalin. I'll pre-cook some period dishes that heat up well and take the usual bread, cheese, olives, pickles stuff.
Then the next week-end is the work shop, and then Magna Faire, and then OMG it's almost Christmas! Actually, I'm taking Thanksgiving week entirely off from work, so I can catch up on sleep, catch up on projects, and just chill out for a while. I'm even going to brave the day after Thankgiving clothing sales. I'm in deperate need of a few new items. I pulled out all my winter stuff, and half of it went to Good WIll--doesn't fit, woefully out of style, or has too much wear. I found a few very nice casual things at Target of all places, but I need some good quality classics for court. (MY Christmas shopping is already done---mwahaha!)
Wow. I'm getting tired just reading this post. Gotta run...

Attempting to post pics from scrapbook

	House Wild Rose Roz, Saher, Francesca, Randalin, Gregory, Keina, Anne
	Last Supper1
	Roz1
	Roz and Melia1

Finally. Geez. You got to be a computer whiz to figure this stuff out.

http://pics.livejournal.com/manage/gal?id=40
Hopfully you will actually be able to get to this link, which is a new gallery of photos from our formal photo shoot. I'm still having issues with lj and photos. I have been unable to change my default photo--keep getting different error messages. Didn't get photos and Silver Hammer--to dark, dreary, muddy, and rainy to even want to get camera out. I know at least one photo got taken of me and the pup before we had to leave. I'll try to track it down.

Silver Hammer starts tomorrow, and Elizabet will be getting her Pelican!
I took the day off today to prepare and cook lunch food--Royal lunch and household lunch. I made some mushroom pasties from a recipe I translated from French recently. They are yummy. I found some dried morels and chanterels, so I reconstituted them and chopped them up with the button mushrooms for the filling. It almost tastes meaty, and is very rich. The filling also has a lot of grated Romano, olive oil, and poudre fine--a spice mixture similar in many ways to apple pie spice but with the addition of grains of paradise and sugar. I tried two different types of pastry since I was making twelve pasties and had to do the pastry in two batches anyway. The more period pastry had less fat, the modern, lots of fat. Needless to say, I like the modern one better. The pastry was easier to work with, was flakier, had better mouth feel, and reduced cooking time by almost 10 minutes. The outside of the pasties are slathered with egg yolk, water and saffron before baking, so they have a nice golden color.
I also made shell bread, an Elizabethan cake-like cookie, traditionally baked in cockle shells. I made these for Pennsic, but they molded. Hopefully I won't have this problem at the event since they'll be consumed on Saturday. They are yummy little things. (My dog, who ate three of the last batch, remembered the smell. She did her little doggie dance all around the kitchen while they were baking and cooling--this time in a high spot that she couldn't reach.) They are flavored with lemon zest, anise seed and rosewater. They actually should be iced, but given the 60% chance of rain we're having tomorrow, I don't want to take a chance on the cookies absorbing the icing, so I'll just skip it this time. The icing is confectioner's sugar and rosewater--must have low humidity for this I think.
My leftover pastry became "dough babies"--leftover dough is rolled out, brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with sugar and spices, then rolled up and sliced into little mini swirls, and baked. I threw a little of the leftover saffrom egg wash on them as well. I have no idea of this is even remotely period. I've never seen a recipe for it--but I haven't finished Scappi yet.
On the non-edible food front, I made two jack-o-lanterns out of large turnips. They hang from hemp cords, so I could leave the whole root intact, giving my little turnip demons some beards. They're very cute. I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.
I was thinking of leaving the pup at home tomorrow if the weather is foul, but she got so excited just watching me pack the car, I guess she'll be going. We will day trip, but I'm staying for feast. She'll be happy to sleep in her crate after court as long as it's somewhere warm. Well, more today beofre I sleep.

For those of you who know Duchess Heather of Tyson, she is now on lj as titania52. She's still getting set up on the site, but is friendable.

Yesterday, after picking up my dog from boarding, shopping for groceries, getting my lawn mower fixed, mowing the lawn, and getting my nails done, my apprentices Francesca and Randalin came to town to spend the night before a photo shoot today. We cooked pork loin roast on the grill (with a yummy fig preserves and chili paste glaze), salad with fresh made herb dressing, and roasted fingerling potatoes and vine ripened tomatoes tossed in olive oil and herbs. We also lit a fire in the fireplace and had some drinks.
Today I got up early and made scones and fried up some smoked bacon for everyone before we costumed up and went to get our pictures taken. My protegee, Father Gregory, set up a photo shoot for everyone local (Thor's Mountain and Vulpine Reach) to get a professional photographer to take SCA photos--FOR FREE. We will alll get DVDs of all of the 900+ pictures that were taken today. It was a fabulous time. Gregory's 1980s sound track just added to the fun. Loads of single and group photos taken, including House Wild Rose. (We have one that's staged suspiciously like The Last Supper.) Melia the amazing Italian Greyhound also went and had photos made. She was such a good dog--6 hours in a strange place with strange people and no problems. Everyone had a great time, and it was really fun to see all the photos being made (his camera was hooked directly to the computer, so we could see each photo right after it was taken.) I'll be posting some as soon as I get a disk.

Just got back from Memphis. So tired I can barely see straight--mostly because Mistresses Vashti and Arielle kept me out until all hours last night. We went to a wonderful liitle bistro--Cafe 1912--and stayed there until we noticed that they were putting the chairs up on the tables next to us and turning out the lights. Fabulous food, great conversation, wonderful friends.
Also saw Duchess Heather on Wednesday and she is going to be on lj very soon. I will pass on her info as I know it. Her responsibilities and current situation are keeping her from playing in the SCA much, so she hopes to get and stay in touch with SCA folks through the lj format for a while until life gets less crazy and she can get to events again.
Good night all.

I am the Saturday breakfast cook for our Black Gryphon Collegium in February. I'm doing an Italian Renaissance breakfast in keeping with the theme of the event, and one of the dishes I'm doing is herb tortas--sort of a deep dish quiche with herbs and spices. I decided it would be fun to teach a hands-on class on Italian Renaissance pastry in the kitchen at 6AM to make the tortas. I'm going to put together a hand-out on pastries with some recipes from Scappi (and yes, I know there are problems with the translated measurements. I have a cheat sheet with the corrections.). Just letting you know it case anyone is interested in making pastry before dawn.

Finished the Spanish style surcoat. (pics below) Didn't line it because the fabric had a pretty interior--basically a reverse of the exterior. Instead I made bias tape out of left over gold silk fabric and faced all the edges with that. It came out quite nice.
 
Still working on the cotehardie--I can only do button holes/eyelets for so long before my fingers hurt, even with thimbles. Here are some spic of the sleeve that's finished.

I'd have it finished by now if it wasn't for all that pesky yard work that needs doing.
Next week I'm going to a conference in Memphis, so I'll be having dinner out with Mistresses Vashti and Arielle. I miss them so much! It will be great to catch up on all the news from Glenn Abhain and my friends there.
Then in two weeks is Silver Hammer--on Halloween, with Royalty in attendance to make our own Elizabet a Pelican. Since I'll have the pup with me, I'm daytripping. But I've volunteered to add to the Royals' luncheon with some mushroom pasties (a new recipes I'll be trying out on them) and shellbread--a cakelike cookie with a sugar/rosewater icing.
I'm also making a couple of turnip jack-o-lanterns that hang from cords. I made some like this years ago and they came out great. I may even enter the Bard of Silver Hammer competition since I have a ghost story song already in my repertoire.
Even the Iggy will in on Halloween fun--I found her a mundane "ruff" that's black with little skulls hanging from it--sort of goth jesterish. Weird, but cute.

I got the silk appliques put on the dog mantle as seen here--used wonder under, which is fab for silks, and emulates a lightweight linen backing.


Here is a picture of the "Spanish" style surcoat that I'm making--same fabric as the hunting hat.

And finally a picture of it over the gold wool cotehardie. If everything gets done, I'll have the cotehardie and surcoat done for Castle Wars. With the hunting hat, lined hood, and a nice linen wimple, I'll have some mix and match outfits for Saturday. I have some great dearskin gold leather gloves with my rose badge and a Laurel wreath on the back that will look great with this outfit.

I'll spend the rest of today finishing the buttons and buttonholes on the cotehardie sleeves. Maybe start on the eyelets up the front tomorrow. But if it's not raining, I really need to mow my lawn.

Last week-end I spent working on the cotehardie to match the new fur lined hood. I've made a good start, but I'm not happy with the sleeves. I've redone them once, but I'm still not thrilled. I'll take a stab at them again tomorrow, Here's the garment partially done.
And another pic of the neckline finished. It came out quite well.


I also got a wild hair and decided to make my dog the one garment I can document--a heraldic mantle--for Castle Wars. I had some leftover silk, so the outer fabric is good heavy gold silk, the lining is a thinner cream silk.
Here are the pieces cut out. I'm patterning it like a standard mantle, but with fewer gores. She'll only wear it to court or fancy dress whatevers, and it drags the ground without any extra fullness. Here's the mantle exterior sewn together.
 It will have a band at the neck and fingerloop braid ties. My arms (a 2 headed red smake) will be appliqued to to the center in claret colored silk and the detail work will be done in black silk thread.

After my fairly productive week-end, work just sucked. I was in court every day last week, tried a case and lost on Wed, and thought I'd have to try another loser on Thurs., but my client decided to plead after the judge chewed him out for 20 minutes about not talking to me for 5 months (phone disconnected and letters came back). On top of all that, my little Iggy got sick. We're still waiting on final diagnosis, but we've got the symptoms under control. We should with an almost $600 vet bill.

After my horrid week, what to do? I've been cooking like a madwoman. Baked a wine spice cake with cream cheese pecan frosting last night (and took half of it to my mother) and 4 loaves of Rye bread today (it will freeze). Tomorrow I'm roasting a whole chicken and having Master Will and THL Catherine over for dinner. I was making an appetizer cheese spread earlier today when my food processor decided to die a terrible death. The upshot of this was spreading a fairly gooey cheese substance out on a cutting board to mince eveything with a chef's knife--messy but effective. The final product is slightly chunkier than normal, but that's OK. I also managed to transcribe some preliminary hearings while waiting for bread to rise.

Tomorrow I'm going to do the applique on the dog mantle and some hand work on the cotehardie before I start cooking again. For the rest of tonight I'm thinking mindless TV and Manhattans.

I finished up all my research, recipes, shopping lists, and tentative scheduling for my ambitious Pennsic 2010 feast. OK Caitlin--for you it may not be that ambitious. And a big thank you to all who posted comments for me. They were extremely helpful. There are 17 recipes. Even with precooking, feast preparation will start at 9AM and finish when dinner is served at 7PM. Our theme this year is period literature, and I chose Le Roman de la Rose, so my feast is French 14th-15th cent.--except for the meringues, which are period (yea!) but probably not until 16th cent. Here's the menu:
Fragrant hand washing water (herbs and orange peel)
Manchet rolls (baked on site, but I'll use frozen bread dough--if a front moves through there will be rising issues. The frozen stuff is more predictable and only has to rise once.)
Mixed pickles: a compost
Roast pork tenderloin
Barbe Robert: a cooked mustard sauce
Camaline Sauce
Yellow pepper sauce
Green sauce
Mushroom pasties (pastry to be made from scratch on site)
Fromentee (frumenty in England--a boiled wheat dish)
Herb salad with oil and salt
Forcemeat "Hedgehogs" (a presentation dish or subtlety)
Applesauce (with cream and egg yolks--yum)
Meringues with anise seed
Ginger comfits (these are made with parsnips as a base instead of bread crumbs--ought to be interesting. They are a true candy--I'll be bringing a marble slab for cooling.)
Candied orange peel
Hypocras (with red wine this year)

Four of these dishes will be baked in a wood burning oven, the tenderloin will cook on the grill. My apprentice Randalin has offered to spend the day with me cooking all this food. We'll also be chopping a lot of wood.

Next cooking project: I'm the Saturday breakfast cook for Black Gryphon collegium in February. An Italian Renaissance theme this year. Menu done--need to work on recipes. Menu:
Herb tortas (basically a quiche with herbs and spices, and yes, I'll make the pastry from scratch)
Sausage patties
Wheat porridge cooked with almond milk with choice of toppings
Toppings: dried fruit compote, "Food of the Angles" (ricotta with honey and rosewater), sugar, honey
Lemon drink (basically lemonade)
modern beverages (coffee, tea, cocoa)

I have finally finished translating the recipes I want to use from Fetes Gourmande. The challenge turned out to be the measurements rather than the actual words, although there are some terms of art in French cooking. There are measurements in French cooking that bear no resemblance to metric or British standard--although they use both of those as well. It was actually easier in many cases to look at the original recipes and figure out the measurements from my own experience. I also discovered, in poring through my other period cookbooks, that some of these recipes have been translated into English by previous authors. It was interesting to see the different interpretations. Now I am not a harsh critic of English food--I ate a lot of very good food in England, but in translating these recipes, the British authors used significantly less spice. No amounts were given in most of the recipes, so it is a matter of taste. My big question of the day for all you period cooks out there is this: has anyone seen a period recipe for meringues? I'm going to have a lot of egg whites leftover, and I'm going to make meringues, but I'd love to be able to document them to period. The furthest back I've found them so far is 18th cent.