e ended up with a weird week. Work is eating just about everyone and then Anja went down sick. She was able to do research, just not doing much of anything with a product.
Rowan stirring
Thursday Sewing was Anja and Loren and they were working on finding and ironing pieces of fabric for various projects. No pictures.
Saturday’s Herb Bunch didn’t happen because Anja was out. Marcus was working on parchment that day. Beware! The gallery below is a bit “squeam” if you have problems that way….
On Sunday, Anja was still out, so folks conferred and we had a “virtual” project day, instead of the feast that we had planned.
Next week we have some largesse things to work on, probably: pins, perfume salve, some pouches
On Saturday Marcus went out and worked on his parchment project.
“The hide was pulled out of its lime bath, and I started to scrape away at the hair side of it. I found that I was having more trouble removing the hair then I thought I should. So I determined that after scraping away about a quarter of the hair that it needed to go back into its lime bath with more lime added. I’ll try it again in about a week.”
Process pictures
Marcus found some videos of what he is doing.
How parchment is made – Domesday – BBC Two – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0
Dirty Jobs – Making Vellum – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2BWc1N9Cqo
What’s the difference between parchment, vellum, and paper? – http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/paper-vellum.html
Anja was working on more toy research and still working on recipes from Apicius. Here are some recipes that she found this week.
from the Gutenberg project version: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29728/29728-0.txt
[133] ANOTHER ASPARAGUS CUSTARD – ALIA PATINA DE ASPARAGIS
ASPARAGUS PIE IS MADE LIKE THIS [1] PUT IN THE MORTAR ASPARAGUS TIPS [2] CRUSH PEPPER, LOVAGE, GREEN CORIANDER, SAVORY AND ONIONS; CRUSH, DILUTE WITH WINE, BROTH AND OIL. PUT THIS IN A WELL-GREASED PAN, AND, IF YOU LIKE, ADD WHILE ON THE FIRE SOME BEATEN EGGS TO IT TO THICKEN IT, COOK [without boiling the eggs] AND SPRINKLE WITH VERY FINE PEPPER.
[67] VEGETABLE DINNER, EASILY DIGESTED – PULMENTARIUM AD VENTREM_ [1]
ALL GREEN VEGETABLES ARE SUITED FOR THIS PURPOSE [2] VERY YOUNG [3] BEETS AND WELL MATURED LEEKS ARE PARBOILED; ARRANGE THEM IN A BAKING DISH, GRIND PEPPER AND CUMIN, ADD BROTH AND CONDENSED MUST, OR ANYTHING ELSE TO SWEETEN THEM A LITTLE, HEAT AND FINISH THEM ON A SLOW FIRE, AND SERVE.
…and from an online website….these just sound tasty.
Maids of Honour – Old English Tudor Cheesecakes By French Tart –
Total Time: 30 mins
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Serves: 6
Yield: 12
Ingredients:
- 230 g pre-made puff pastry
- 110 g curd cheese or 110 g cottage cheese, which has been sieved
- 50 g soft brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 tablespoons single cream
- 1 tablespoon orange flower wateror 1 tablespoon rose water
- 75 g ground almonds
- 50 g mixed dried fruit, such as seedless raisins and candied peel, chopped
- icing sugar, for sifting
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 220C/450F/gas7 and lightly grease a 12 hole bun or muffin tin.
- Roll out the pastry and stamp out 12 fluted rounds – try to make sure that they are at least 1/4″ bigger than needed, as the puff pastry shrinks during baking.
- Line the bun tray with the pastry rounds and chill them whilst making the filling.
- Place the curd cheese or cottage cheese into a large mixing bowl and add the beaten eggs, cream, sugar, orange flower water or rose water and almonds.
- Mix well and then add the mixed dried fruit, mixing again well.
- Spoon the filling into the pastry cases and bake the tarts for 15-20 minutes or until well-risen, golden brown & firm to the touch.
- Allow them to cool a little and then carefully remove them and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Arrange them on an attractive cake platter and sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.
…and she wrote up her HOT CHEESE directions
Anja’s HOT CHEESE – Note, depending on your horseradish and how smushed it is, this cheese can get hot enough that even horseradish lovers have trouble eating much of it! It’s a good, strong flavor that mixes well with equally strong-flavored appetizer bits, like green olives or with crisp vegetables like carrot or celery strips. Put a warning on the plateful, ‘coz the heat sneaks up on you….
About 1/2 hour prep time, but a week or two’s waiting time.
- Buy a block of decent cheddar (basing the instructions on a 2x4x8 inch approximate block, 1-2 pounds) a bulb of garlic and about a 1/2×1 inch piece of horseradish or two tablespoons of prepped, crushed.
- Peel and crush the garlic and horseradish. Mix well together with a little oil, if needed, to make a paste.
- Slice the cheese across so that you have two 1x4x8 pieces.
- Using a cheese box (if you have one, these work best) or a freezer Ziploc that the cheese will fit into, or cling wrap (least-favored option) layer 1/3 of the paste on the bottom, then one cheese piece, another 3, the other cheese piece and the last on top. Seal tightly, pressing out as much air as possible and keep in the cold part of the fridge for about a week. Option three will thoroughly “flavor” everything else in the fridge unless you can find a way to get the bundle completely air-tight.
- When you go to use the cheese, scrape off the paste and make nice, *thin* slices before serving. The paste makes a great flavoring at that point for roast meats, pizza or lasagne, but if you’re not going to use it quickly, toss it.
- Leftovers should be sliced and frozen and then used in recipes for potatoes gratin, or even in scrambled eggs (be careful how much you add!!!!) or other dishes that benefit from cheesey, hot goodness!
…and some peg doll inspirations… (I don’t claim any copyright to these pictures found on Pinterest). Dolls weren’t called that in period. Usually they were called “babies” or poppets/puppets from the Latin pupa/pupus. ‘Mawmets’ is an English term, while in Germany, dolls were called Docke, or Tocke. Usually what we now call peg dolls or clothespin dolls were single pieces carved from a branch and sometimes called stump dolls. Of course now we buy them ready-turned…
Some source pictures – Stump dolls were even made of clay
…and she has a lot more pictures for playing with!
Link to buy unfinished peg dolls. Check for 2nd quality for the best price…. http://www.caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen-cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=46
Loren found a game that’s right in line with his interests: Rithmomachy, Rithmomachia, also Arithmomachia, Rythmomachy, Rhythmomachy, or sundry other variants; sometimes known as The Philosophers’ Game. Attested back into the 11th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rithmomachy
Hatch
I found this interesting article
In ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 11/19/14 & published 11/23/14 (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 11/24/14
House Capuchin 