Gates of Bedlam Too

Friday - Dancing Cooks. This is medieval dance practice and a cooking competition. I made chicken in verjuice (the theme was chicken) and intended to make another dish, but didn't start it in time to get it cooked before the event - it needs to marinate for 2 hours. Cooked it when we got home. The chicken in verjuice was good, but the Moroccan chicken was absolutely yummy. I think I've found one of my dishes for the Al'hambra Nights Feast. Oh, and we did get some dancing done as well.

Saturday - after sleeping in, spent most of the afternoon sorting out a few details and making the mulled wine and cider for Soiree that evening.

Soiree was a good event. tatianiska provided wonderful food, as usual, and the event ran very smoothly. For those who don't know, Soiree is a performance event - somewhat like a bardic circle with a feast attached. Although it was a small event this year, there were enough people prepared to get up and perform once or twice or thrice to keep everyone entertained until quite late. Songs, stories and jokes - and a bit of dancing. So congratulations to the Stewards.

At the end of the night, there were prizes awarded for best song, best story and valiant attempt. The Baroness had also decided that the new Bard of Rowany would be chosen from the performers. For his sins, S got to be Bard! :)

And in a personal achievement, I actually managed to get up and sing by myself for the first part of the song Styvyn and I sang. I sing in choirs, I don't usually sing by myself. I get nervous and stuff up. I think I did ok this time, so whew!

Sunday was relatively quiet mainly involving work around the house seeing as it was still raining.

For those who don’t already know, tatianitska and I are cooking for the Newcomers’ Feast this year. After much discussion, we decided on the theme of ‘Angleterre to Outremer’ (basically England to the Middle East – Europe is nicely in the middle). After we’d decided the theme, the dishes actually fell into place quite nicely. Most of them have been at previous feasts run by one or the other of us, but there’ll be a few new ones. I’ve started testing them out already.

For those not familiar with the term: (source Wikipedia)
Outremer, French (outre-mer) for "overseas", was the general name given to the Crusader states established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The name was often used as an equivalent to Levant, Syria or Palestine, and incorporated areas that are today also part of Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.


The term could also be used for any other land "overseas"; Louis IV of France was called "Louis d'Outremer" as he was raised in England.