Man, I'm tired! We had an SCA event in our back yard this weekend. I think there were about 16 people altogether. I was the cook for the event. Fortunately one of the housemates volunteered to take care of the Friday night dinner, breakfasts and Saturday lunch; I concentrated on the banquet.

All the dishes were from Medieval or Renaissance cookbooks. I love medieval cooking and recipes, there are no set amounts you have to measure. Sabina Welserin even tells you:

'And taste it, however it seems good to you, make it so.'

That's how I cook anyway — by feel and taste.

This is a beautiful example how the basic househols cooking adapted to what was available:

'Cook whatever meat you wish in water, or in a little wine, or in meat stock, wine and bacon to give flavour, then fry your meat, then grind ginger, saffron, parsley and a little sage, if you wish, and egg yolks poured in slowly with a slotted spoon, raw, for the liaison, or ground bread moistened with stock, and put all to boil together with verjuice; and some add cheese, and it is all right.'

That stew was a hit. I will probably make it again some time. I was also asked for the recipes. I will put the menu with recipes on the web as soon as I can muster some energy for it. Right now all I have are ugly printouts of the original / translated / transcribed recipes themselves.

Besides researcing for the banquet during the past two weeks, I painted my banner. The intention was to find the same kind of paint we used for our walls. Something that does not stink, is plastic and water soluble. Don't ask me how it happened that I walked out of the shop door with toxic, carcinogenic and volatile paint that requires solvents. My brain must have switched itself off and left me clueless.

Anyway, the paint stuck to the cloth I had hemmed for that purpose and it's now waterproof to boot. One shouldn't hang it near candles, though...