Now begins the Tourney ... uh ... Cooking Season

[hrj]

I started meal planning for Crown today and had to make a decision whether I'm going to go for the "random spontaneous dinner guest" plan again this year. (I.e., plan on enough food for 1 or 2 others for Saturday dinner and then challenge myself to find dinner guest(s) that aren't simply the same people I always hang out with.) In truth, I had something less than a 50% success rate last year -- although the "failure" is only psychological. It's not like the food goes to waste. You'd think it would be an easy enough thing to find people willing to be fed a semi-gourmet medieval dinner at the drop of a hat, but of course most people actually do have pre-existing food plans when they show up at events. And my ideal scenario of identifying, approaching, and successfully targeting people I don't already know well adds a lot of potential for failure. But then, if it were easy, it wouldn't be a comfort-zone challenge, now would it?

But then, when it comes down to it, this particular challenge falls into the "what the heck, why not" category. After all, I have to eat dinner at events. And I enjoy doing a fancy dinner even if it's just for me. And it isn't really any harder to prepare for 2-3 than it is for 1.

I don't know if I'll repeat last year's plan of focusing on exploring a particular cookbook for the season, but I'm starting off with a reminder that the Forme of Cury actually does have a good assortment of vegetable dishes in it, and an awful lot of them are very similar to how I cook by default these days anyway. So I think I'll start off with a menu that accompanies a chicken in sauce with dishes of parsnips, mushrooms, and fennel, plus a recipe for pork "tartlets" that looks suspiciously similar to won ton soup, and a tart of apples and pears for a fruit course. About 3/4 of the cooking can be done in advance, which helps a lot on the logistical side.

Comments

[cellio]

But then, when it comes down to it, this particular challenge falls into the "what the heck, why not" category.

Sure sounds like it, yes. I hope this season works out better. It sounds like a neat idea.

(The apple/pear tart from that source is yummy. I have no experience of the other dishes you mentioned.)

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

New Cooks/Linen Spoon will be cooking from Forme of Cury all year - feel free to drop in if you'd like to talk about recipes from it!

[zoccolaro.livejournal.com]

I think your idea to host one or two people in a lovely setting with fabulous food is wonderfully generous! I do hope you find cool peoples to invite.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

In one way it's generous (I have this idea about helping introduce people to the joys of fine dining and good medieval food, also about finding ways of practicing SCA hospitality that are sustainable for me as a single person), but in another way it's really quite selfish. My various comfort-zone projects are very much All About Me, when it comes down to it.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

"Tourney season" translates to "cooking season" for me, too. :-) I'm cooking a bunch of stuff out of Scappi for Crown... greens & cheese tart, farro with saffron and herbs, fish with white wine, onions and mushrooms.

I've done very little with Forme of Cury, but I am intrigued by the description of that pork "tartlet" recipe... will have to look it up!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I'll be posting the recipes (as usual) after I know what they are (i.e., after I translate the general notes into an actual dish that I can comment on).

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

I planned on accepting an invitation this year. It was practically a resolution. What about me?

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Ok. You don't quite count as someone I don't know very well, but certainly as someone I'd like to know better! Plan to be hungry.