So! You want to give a feast......

The recipe in my previous post is for a feast I am going to help prepare March 20th. Yes I did say feast not dinner. I belong to a group called The Society for Creative Anachronism or SCA for short. It is a group the recreates mostly European history between oh....roughly.....600 to 1600. Some of us do range outside of Europe to the Middle East, Japan and Russia just to name a few places and some before 600 as well. We have groups all over the world which are divided in to Kingdoms with names like Atenveldt, which happens to be all of Arizona, Lochac is Australia, New Zealand and parts of Antarctica or The Kingdom of Colontir which is Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Northern Arkansas and of course there are many, many more.We like to dress, eat, fight, hold court and make all manner of things as they did. From Romans to Vikings, from Elizabethan England and France to the flowing robes of the Middle East all can be found within our group. We are further broken down into Baronial groups which are lead by an elected Baron and Baroness our King is chosen by combat in a tournament called a Crown tournament, his Lady or Consort becomes the new Queen. I live in the Barony of Tir Ysgithr in the Kingdom of Atenveldt or Tucson, Arizona. This is my local group. Our local group has a weekly fighter practice where you will find men and women practicing their skills in hard suit, rapier, dance, drumming and any number of crafts. Once a month we have an evening for classes where those who know teach those who don't! LOL We also have each month a weekend event. This month is Great Helm for us. This is a series of tournaments to determine who the Captain of the Guard and his Guardsmen will be for the next year, they also find a Rapier Captain and a Youth Champion. My daughter, Mary, has had the honor of being the Youth Champion for the last year! On Saturday evening, after a day of tournaments and court and such we will be having a feast. This is the feast I will be helping to prepare.
This Sunday I spent all day with the feast steward organizing. Made my brain hurt it did! LOL
We start serving food at 6 pm and dessert is put out........three hours later!! We have six courses with two to three dishes in each course. You want a list? Of course you do! I'll use the modern names for the dishes ok?

First Course - Appetizers

Cheese Tarts
Cheese Tarts with Blueberries
Florintines
Salmon Quiesce
Crab Quiesce

Second Course

Boiled Salad
Sausage and Pears
Breads and Assorted Butters

Third Course

Herb and Fresh Lettuce Salad
Orange Chicken with Sops (This is the dish in the last post)
Lemon Chicken

Fourth Course

Braised Beef
Humus and Pita Bread

Fifth Course

Pork with Root Vegetables (turnips,parsnips, etc )
Hodgepodge ( onions,bread marigold petals)
Green Beans with Almonds
Oatmeal with Raisins

Sixth Course

Almond and Pear Pie
Blueberry, Cherry and Quince Tarts
Assorted Cheeses, Marmalade and Fruit
Apples Flambe' for the Head Table



I am stuffed just reading all of this...LOL So my fellow cook and I had to decide when these would be cooked or reheated, what kind of dishes these will go into, with what garnish, at what time they will be served and how etc. Took us seven hours with a half hour break for lunch, which was the orange chicken. MMMMMMM Oh! I forgot us folks working in the kitchen and serving the feast? We don't get to eat it!! Only if there are left overs...now that part is lame don't you think? We get 12 bean soup, bread and ham if and when we have time to grab some. Aaaany way.......We start cooking this Saturday with the tarts and Sunday with 120 pieces of chicken.
I'll let you know how it goes......