Ars Gratia Artis

Happy birthday to me. A Certain Age gets nearer with each anniversaire, but, fortunately, as the Baby Boom advances before me, A Certain Age, if it is an actual number, gets a smidge older with passing time. I’m not going to get there quite as fast as I might if this was, say, 1969. I’m [...]

So, it did not take me long to figure out that managing the site content with a blog for every subject might turn into a serious nightmare. I’m going to have to plan it out a little bit more. I KNOW I want to do the cookery bits as a blog, and I don’t have [...]

Some while ago, I stumbled across Resurrected Recipes–well, stumbled is not exactly the right word; I check the parent blog, Slumberland.org every once in a while because the woman writing that blog is, at least as much as I can tell from her blog, like me. She is at least remotely connected to the SCA, [...]

February was a rough work month. There is a certain amount of work that we are each obliged to complete according to the government contract we work under, and February is always a month of long days and cursing one’s salaried status, because there is lots of work, but not a lot of month. It [...]

Mmm, Cinco de Mayo food for piscetatians….well, this would work for vegan’s too. Yum. This is part of why I love America, one of the good things about it. Let’s all be happy about being Mexican for a day! Whee! …. Now if we could only help those opposed to immigration see that it’s not [...]

So, since Angelique has moved to Seattle, we have been watching the boys 1-2 days every weekend. This is nice, in that their father gets some help in caring for them and we get the opportunity to play with them at least once a week. Baby Ry has, for as long as we have known [...]

I really should update the persona blog.
Here is my summary of how the A&S 50 project for Lenten foodways turned out:
http://list.minstrel.com/public/northshield/2008-March/026242.html
Here is the redaction of the pie of parsnips:
http://cookalong.blogspot.com/2008/03/to-make-pie-of-parsnips-another-way.html
And I finished my knit bag for A&S 50:

I still knit terribly, but I am happy with this little bag. I simply could not get knitting in [...]

Welcome to Starvation
(Dear friend, skip to the next bit; we’re talking about fish here. You know who you are.)
Well, I like to cook, as you know, and I’ve been doing most of that write-up over at cook-a-long. Since Lent began this month, we decided to do a couple of Lent recipes. I have already redacted [...]

I think that after Michael heads down to the prop group, I’ll set up my archery stuff and shoot things. Or maybe I’ll work on an writing project, or cook. Or do all of that.
Other places public things have been written since the last entry:
*Two entries at Cook-a-long, which contains content related to redacting pre-1601 [...]

Really tired, but wanted to record my progress very briefly on my ongoing projects.

One more book wiped out from the One From Each; I did a meatloaf type of recipe from Seven Centuries. As the redaction she did clearly created a meatloafy thing and the period recipe created more of a patty/meatball kind of [...]

Michael’s home safely, and I’m glad to say that his weekend eventually began to look up. He brought me a present–a personalized, autographed picture of Robert Picardo, whom I have admired since Meg Mucklebones and China Beach, so when he became a cast member in the Trek franchise, it was a win for me. Apparently, [...]

One of the people I read on LJ brought this topic up. I have been working on a set of short articles about food for non-period cooks who are interested in at least presenting a bit of a more period table when bringing their own food to an event. This is still in its draft [...]

Angelique, Kiernan, Keith over for Easter Brunch; I hid little plastic eggs containing change and chocolate eggs throughout the house for him to find. Of course, he had fun, and it was less candy for him than a traditional Easter basket. Angelique is really starting to show with baby # 2.
My brother called me, [...]

At least he’s not ManBearPig. It’s totally serial. I remember Cave of the Winds. It was wholly unexciting. Anyway.
In the end, I went nowhere today, despite my wish to go to one of two events. I was so tired and dizzy. It just seemed to be most wise to stay home. Huh. All [...]

Alas, I has such hope. It was fun to watch, nonetheless. It’s a spectacle as much as a game, a tourney for the 21st century, pass out the bread because here is the circus. But alas, my hopes are disappointed.
Super Tasty Fun Candy!

Another book bites the dust in the One from Each project. It was [...]

Note to self: Original entry broke into subjects because it was so long.
Adventures in Medieval Revivalism. Or Something.
That’s a good phrase, I’ll have to use it again.
Anyway, I’ve been trying for two weekends or so to knock vol 1 of Take a Thousand Eggs Or More off the list, but had some difficulty finding a [...]

Joe and Micheal on New Year’s Eve; the photo doesn’t do justice to the fabulous fifties clothing and environment.
I’ve been prepping my New Year’s list for a few days now, not really resolutions, but reminders. By the time I click over from Draft to Publish, it will re-date it to whatever day it is that [...]

Finally have a tree up this year, largest tree we’ve had in years. Silly expensive; there is a part of me that can not wait to get to the 5 ache holding in Viroqua, start buying trees with root systems for Yule, planting them after the season passes.
But then I think about leaving the [...]

There they are. Another book bites the dust in the One from Each project. The recipe was copied into this blog here.
After 10 days in the malt vinegar, the beans were patchy in color and tasted of nothing but malt vinegar. I may have made the pickling brine too strong. I boiled them, as instructed, [...]

Lying here, too undone by exhaustion to be bothered with calling Michael and asking him to bring me some malt vinegar. Some big fat illness is rapidly gaining viral steam and here I am, on da couch, drifting in and out of wakefulness.
Why malt vinegar? Here is why:
To Pickle Kidney Beans
Take the beans and [...]

22 October 06 and 23 October 06

Erbolate, cheddar, rye crisp bread.
Another book knocked off the cooking section of One From Each; I’ve still got herbs growing in the yard despite the cold, so I went for an egg dish featuring a huge mess of herbs. I didn’t have everything in the long list, but I [...]

Managed to spend a little more time bending ears about the Nefarious Scheme–which is really a far more grand term than it deserves, but what the hell. Anyway. Just a quickie because I really need to be asleep.
Let’s talk about projects. Although I have been far busier than I expected, I have made some minor [...]

Well, I sat down at the computer at about 11 AM to write a brief entry for Projectland and cobble together a second entry composed of all the 1 sentence to one paragraph entries I’ve started over the past month or so. It’s now 1830. Wow, the Internet is an interesting place. Let’s see, I [...]