Single Entity

Yes, I’m alive and still have things to say. Last week was kind of crazy with the papers and the ridiculous Latin poetry. But this weekend, I got to relax and cook medieval food with friends! Pictures (by Carolyn) and recipes:

First, a picture of me with glasses, which most people have not seen before, since I don’t wear them regularly. My eyes are getting worse, though, so I figure I should start, you know…actually using them. Carolyn says I look "matronly" in them. Do I really?


This is my medieval cookbook with…almonds in it? Don’t ask me why there are almonds. I wasn’t responsible for those. Note the Middle English text above the modern English interpretation of the recipe. Awesome, no?


The mushroom and leek soup was very good. To make: chop 1 lb. mushrooms and 3 leeks and combine with 1 cup beef broth, a pinch of saffron, ¼ tsp. ground ginger, ½ tsp. ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp. ground white pepper, and ½ tsp. ground cloves. Simmer for about 10 minutes.


Rastons! This is a stuffed bread loaf that is very, very good. It makes an excellent appetizer, even for non-medieval meals. To make: get a bread loaf (the recipe says a round loaf, but as you can see, ours was not round and it worked perfectly well), cut off the top third of the loaf and tear out the soft bread on the inside. Tear the soft bread into pieces, toss with two tablespoons of melted butter and dried herbs (we used rosemary and basil; at the Bors Head, they used poppy seeds. Both were good.), and place back in the loaf. Bake for about ten minutes at 350°.


Chicken in rose sauce (note the awesome garnish, handiwork of moi). This was our masterpiece, and it turned out better than I expected. It did taste like roses! It had some very interesting flavors: it’s made with almonds, sugar and rose petals, so it was a very sweet dish, which is unexpected for an entrée, but good. It actually went really well with the buttered greens, surprisingly. The sweetness and the butteriness were quite tasty together. Wifey even had two servings of the vegetables, and she never eats vegetables!