This year's list includes: (drops) Toll House Chocolate Chip, Grandma Roger's oatmeal with blueberries, Grandma Roger's Oatmeal with candied orange peel, Spice Drops (vegan), Soft Molasses, Peanut butter crisps, ginger snaps, M&M cookies
(rolls) Refrigerator cookies with hazelnuts and poppy seeds, Orange and cardamom, Almond thins, Swedish ginger thins.
I'd like to make some rolled and cut cookies, but I don't think I'm going to have time.

Howdy ya'll. 
I just got word that the West Kingdom's Fall Collegium 2010 has been moved to November 13. If you were hoping to attend the class on the Perfectly Period Feast for 1420-1440 Catalonia, please adjust your calendars accordingly.

Sadly that's not the bad news. The bad news is spring collegium for 2010 has been cancelled, so any preperatory classes for servers and carvers will be at the outdoor West Kingdom Arts and Sciences weekend. A&S weekend is currently scheduled for June 11-13th.

GM and I will try to attend any local collegial events between now and feast if there are people in outlying areas who would like to be carvers or servers. I may also attempt to teach the guest and staff feast classes at the cook's playdate at the West-Antir war in July.

eta: for more discussion on the decisions around collegium, please see etaine_pommier's  Collegium? post. (sorry, here's the unlocked version, http://etaine-pommier.livejournal.com/241052.html .)
 

A few more details on the cook's 14^th century playdate this weekend.

• John's bringing spit adapters for the BBQs at the park
• Janos is bringing his monster BBQ
• Zinaida's bringing her oven on a trailer
• Gianetta's bringing oil for frying
• Crystal's bringing a krumkaka iron for wafers.  

If you can, feel free to bring wood or hardwood charcoal. I hope to get the fire started before 10am. I expect we'll cook all afternoon until about 5pm. We'll eat as we go, and we're going to be listed in the site handout, so be nice to the folks who wander by for a snack. :)

We're also going to have some musicians, at least one group of singers for the 14^th century salon, and a discussion of the Story of Patient Griselda see link in comments for discussion questions, and go here http://www.bartleby.com/195/2.html and here http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/clkt-par.htm for the texts)

I'm hoping we'll have a dishwashing station, and a place to sit and eat out of the smoke. I'll have 5 gals of drinking water available.

If you can, please bring a clipboard and pen. Juana is bringing some extra ingredients and recipes (and I hope to have some too), so if you decide to cook one up, please write down your recipes/experiments.

At least one person as asked for oven space for bread. I'd like to bake a tart.

Details about Mists Coronet: http://mists.westkingdom.org/2009_Fall_Coronet.php

Do you believe in soulmates?
No. I think the whole concept of there being only one person on the Whole Planet just for me, because I'm  such a special little snowflake to be one of the more destructive memes of modern life. After all, why should I accommodate anyone, or try to improve my relationship skills when my true soul mate will love me, warts and all? 

On another topic, I had not idea the word chauvinist came from a person! http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000522

Last Tuesday, I was working from home. One of the things I like about working from home is I can wear my most comfortable pair of jeans which, while almost passable for running errands on a Saturday morning, are no longer in the category of office wear. GM had to take one of those medical tests you have to starve yourself for, so in interests of being a good wife, I dropped him off and went to get him a smoothie. Smoothie in my hot little hands, I headed back to pick him up. Have you noticed in a fit of generosity, Jambajuice overfills their cups slightly? It doesn't matter if you drink it right away, but if you don't it soon leaks around the lid and leaves raspberry colored stains on your pants.
I did manage to make it through the rest of my afternoon at home with only the usual amount of cat fur on my jeans.
In a desperate attempt to reduce the amount of leftovers & random ingredients in the kitchen, I made a lasagne (from the bottom up: sauce, boiled noodles, 1 lb drained ricotta, 6 fat cloves of garlic (chopped), 1 zucchini sliced thin, apx 6 ounces olive tapenade, sprinkle of grated smoked mozzarella cheese, no-boil noodles, 2 Aidell's portabella sausages (chopped), 2 Aidell's garlic and artichoke sausages (chopped), 1 cup caramelized onions, apx 8 oz Classico pesto, sprinkle of grated smoked mozzarella cheese, boiled noodles, 1 3/4 cup mushroom duxelle (shitakes, milk, provolone, shallots), smoked tomato sauce, all remaining grated smoked mozzarella cheese (1 1/2 pounds total), garnished with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella balls.) All went well until I tried to move the still-warm lasagna into the fridge. One slip, one wave of lasagne and there was cheese&tomoato sauce on the oven, the floor, my feet, and my pants. There was much cussing. A very wide spatual is the tool of choice for scooping up the sad remains. I felt like Kryten, "Bon Appetit, Bin!". Most of the lasagne is ok.
Still not sure the shitake mushrooms were the best choice, but we'll see what GM thinks.

GM and I are taking our 14-16th century tableware class on the road to Cloondara tonight. I'm fussing over the slide presentation on my lunch hour. Does anybody who's taken the class before have any suggestions? I feel like I'm trying to include too much. This class is just about the material culture (spoons, plates, cups, linens) not the etiquette or server's class.
In addition to the "how we made it" discussion, we hope to include some of the "where you can buy it" so if you have links to share, please write me before 4pm pacific time today. 

Stuff you can buy:

Ceramics, Knives, Table Linens, all kinds of things from Historic Enterprises (info@historicenterprises.com)
http://historicenterprises.biz/reenactment-goods-cutlery-c-102_163.html
Drinking vessels:
http://historicenterprises.biz/reenactment-goods-drinking-vessels-c-102_194.html

Trenchers, spoons, salts, misc tableware from Billy and Charlie's: http://www.billyandcharlie.com/misc.html

Steve Millingham Pewter Replicas:
Cutlery and Tableware http://www.pewterreplicas.com/dept.asp?id=38
Drinking Vessels http://www.pewterreplicas.com/dept.asp?id=36

Mercy the Potter,  cups, plates, animal head pitchers!: http://www.rakurakutei.com/sales.htm

Knives from Gaukler Medieval Wares
http://medievalwares.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=66_99_105

Cups, water jugs
http://ancientpots.homestead.com/gallery.html

Aquamaniles and pitchers from GRIFFIN DYEWORKS & FIBER ARTS
http://www.twoheartsentwinedpottery.com/

GM and I did end up going to South Dakota last weekend. The visit to my brother's family went smoothly, and we all went to the WalMart portrait studio to get a picture taken. Mission Accomplished. We also went to see my eldest nephew in a community theatre production of Fiddler on Roof.

This weekend, GM's in Wisconsin at the Ring of Steel reunion. RoS is his old stage-combat troop. I hope he's having fun. I know I'm old&dull now; I woke up Saturday morning and realized the only constraint on my behavior (other than G-d and peer-like qualities) was 2,355 miles away and my next thought was ooo! I could have egg salad for lunch!

I made a veggie lasagne for next weekend {the usual sauce and no-boil noodles 1) drained ricotta with goat cheese, thin-sliced garlic, sliced zucchini, 2) cheese, pesto, chopped artichokes, chopped white-only leeks  3) portabella mushrooms cooked down with shallots, milk, and provolone, 4) chopped fresh basil, cheese, green garlic-stuffed olives, fresh tomatoes}. I also made Alton Brown's crepes. They are sadly disappointing.

The garden is in a terrible state. I've paid little attention to it all summer and the weeds are taking over the herb garden. Even more unhappily, last Monday I went out to look at the plum tree and thought "I should pick those this weekend" and when I went out Saturday morning, they were all gone. Not sure if it was the squirrels or the birds but not a single plum is left on the tree.