The feast came off really well this weekend.  I think everyone had a good time, and the food came out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

It's the first time I've tried cooking for 50 people, and the two big takeaways so far are that I made WAY too much food, and that I should have done more prep work at home.  Cooking for 50 over a camp stove with no electricity or running water was an interesting challenge.  Also, note to self:  many people seem to not like fennel.  Thankfully it wasn't an integral part of the meal, since it was only in the sauce for the ham, but still, something to keep in mind.  On the other hand, some people really like it.  My son kept coming by for leftover fennel tops to chew on.  Kids are weird. 

I'm going to be posting the recipes I used and any changes I made to what was in the books I used over the next few days, so stay tuned.

Maybe next year I could try ancient Messopotamian (sp?) food.    It would lead to some interesting decor, if nothing else.

So the Roman "dinner" I'd planned turned into a "feast" for 50 people, complete with decorations, togas, triclinia, etc.  Should be quite the do.  I'll end up spending most of Saturday cooking, but that's usually pretty fun anyway.

The menu as planned includes:

• Ham in red wine and fennel sauce
• Chicken in "green sauce"
• fried carrots
• braised cucumbers
• chickpeas with cheese
• celery in raisin sauce
• boiled eggs with pine nut sauce
• assorted table snacks, olives, bread, cheese, almonds, etc.

I'm going to try to take some pictures (of both process and product) and I'll post them here if any turn out.

At this week's market I was lucky enough to find some purple gooseberries.  I've had the usual green ones several times, but hadn't seen purple before.  They were tasty.  Quite tart, and pretty sizeable.  They color was kind of like purple grapes (the light ones, not like concords).  The same vendor also had mulberries, which I don't think I've ever seen for sale around here before.  I didn't try those, although now I wish I had.

While I can't stand sweet coffee, I must admit to a craving for sweetened tea that I picked up while in Ireland a few years back.  There are some food stories there that I'll have to post some time.  Anyway, I love the occasional sweetened tea, but I'm pretty much totally off of sucrose.  The idea of adding aspartame to a hot beverage fills me with dread (it's not good for you) so I mostly just don't drink sweetened tea anymore.

Recently I decided to try stevia, which comes from a plant, is much sweeter than sugar, and comes from a natural source.  It also has 0 calories and supposedly 0 effect on blood sugar.  I got some packets of stevia mixed with FOS (a soluble fiber that's supposed to promote the growth of healthy GI bacteria) for bulk.  It's quite lovely in tea.  No after taste that I can detect, it's quite sweet.  I use a really big teacup, so a whole packet is OK, but in a regular sized cup it would be too sweet for me.  I haven't tried it in any cold drinks yet, but will soon.  I want to see if I can make it work for sekanjabin, which is one of my favorite summer beverages.

The only thing about it that inspires caution is that it hasn't been approved as a sweetener by the FDA, but I would tend to agree with some web sources that the lack of approval probably has a lot to do with the fact that stevia is a plant that isn't patentable and therefore doesn't benefit big chemical companies (the ones with all the lobbyists) who make stuff like aspartame and sucralose.  There are some references to studies on stevia.net that suggest that it's pretty safe, but of course many such studies can be made to reach whatever conclusion you want.  The fact that the FDA hasn't approved it as a sweetener (although they OK'ed it as a "dietary supplement") won't keep me up nights.

This weekend I'm going backpacking for the first time in probably 12-13 years.  I'm ardently trying to remember what kind of food is good for backpacking that isn't the hideously priced stuff they sell in outdoor stores.  I'm just going overnight, so weight is important, but not crucial.  The classic macaroni and cheese is just a bit too high-glycemic for me.  There are several good brands of sealed and irradiated Indian food that might be good.  Not as light as dehydrated stuff, but tastier, and not nearly as heavy as cans.  You just boil them right in the package and out comes delicious veggie Indian food.  There are even some rice dishes now, although they don't survive the process quite as well.  Peanut butter and jelly works well, and keeps well.  Not too heavy.  Hmmmm.  Some low-glycemic, whole wheat pasta might work.  My son requsted alphabet soup.  We'll see how that works out...

For breakfast there's the classic instant oatmeal.  There are several good organic, not-too-sweet brands.  Salted cashews make a good snack, or jerky. 

Luckily I still have a few days to decide...

You don't often see this groovy green globes for sale, but luckily I found a lovely 1/2 pint of very fresh, bright green goose berries at my local farmer's market last night.  "What to do with them?" you might ask.  Some classic examples are jam, or the very brightly colored "gooseberry fool".  I put them on cereal.   With some blueberries and a nice purple plum.  Very tasty, and quite a different texture from other berries.  More watery that a blueberry, and fairly tart. 

 

Next month I'll be organizing and cooking a Roman feast for a gang of friends.  I'm already looking forward to it.  I've got some good sources for Roman cooking, and there are lots of interesting recipes I've never had a chance to try out.  I'm going to try to document the process (menu, cooking, final product) and post pictures etc. here as I have a chance.  Stay tuned.

Woohoo!  It's finally berry season.  We went to the Hillsboro Tuesday farmer's market this week, and scored some really nice berries.  Red and yellow raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and some blackberry-like things (ollalieberries, maybe).  All were fantastic.  I love berry season.  I'm a big fan of fruit and cereal for breakfast, and I've been existing on pretty much apples, pears and bananas all winter.  Not only is it exciting to get some new variety, but the berries don't require cutting up before they go on the cereal, which saves me a bunch of time.  Soon it will be stone fruit season (I got some early plums, but they were less than amazing) and then it will be plums, peaches, nectarines, etc.  I'm particularly fond of those little donut peaches on cereal.  They have a very subtle flavor that comes through well at room temp, and they tend to go really well with the vanilla soymilk.

My kids are pretty gaga for the berries too.  Always nice to get something non-starch based down them.  They've been begging to back to the market (next one on Saturday) to get some more.  OK by me!

There I was, all ready to host this year's Cast Iron Chef competition.  Piled beside me was 75lb. of secret ingredient (no I'm still not telling).  NO ONE SHOWED!  Slackers!  We waited 1 1/2 hours to see if maybe someone would show up.  Nary a one.  Maybe we'll try again later in the year.  Very disappointing. 

10 Foods you should never eat [via Scott].  I'm not sure I agree 100% with all their criteria, mostly around saturated fats, but all in all quite the lineup.  It's pretty amazing how gross a lot of commercial food products are when you stop to think about it.  There are some studies coming out that maybe saturated vegetable fats aren't so bad for us (in moderation) but 40% of your day's fat from a little snack is obviously not a good thing. 

Luckily most of the foods on their list are completely gross, and you wouldn't want to eat them anyway .