The week before last my wife and I were at a private camping event with a bunch of our SCA friends.  Every year, one of our friends rents a forest service cabin up on the NE side of Mt. Ranier, out of Natches, WA for a week, and many people come to hang out.  This year Vikki (my wife) and I got to stay the whole week, which was very relaxing. 

One of the things we do every year is try out new and different cooking techniques, preferable things that would have been done “in period”, or as would have been done in the past, for you non-SCA wonks.  A couple of years ago we rendered lard for the first time over a fire, and this year I made beef tallow.  Vikki often makes cheese over the open fire, etc.

Many years ago one of our friends got the idea for what we’ve come to call the “Law Breakfast”.  In old Irish (brehon) law, there were laws about what different people were entitled to at meal time according to their status.  Since the woman who rents the cabin in nominally the clan chieftan, we make breakfast according to what would be entitled to a chief.  This includes things like milk, beer, butter, and “condiments”.

Our interpretation has become:

• Cold roast chicken (easy to prepare ahead and freese, and really good for breakfast)
• Smoked fish (also easy to prepare ahead, although this year we didn’t so there wasn’t any)
• barley cakes (barley flour, eggs and milk, cooked like crepes) with butter and honey.  We usually try for a whole honey comb, but this year just honey.
• Milk
• Beer (it’s what’s for breakfast)
• Sometimes oatmeal

It makes a great breakfast.  The barley cakes are particularly popular.

I went out to the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island last weekend, and when faced with the wealth of fabulous produce decided I must make borscht.  The had some lovely beets, and it just sounded really good.  A perfect fall soup.

Anyway, I started out with some stew beef and some ham, browning each a bit, then added an onion or two and some garlic and browned some more.  Then I tossed in a can (big one) of crushed tomatoes, since I like borscht on the tomatoey side.  I also added about two extra cans of water at that point.  Then came a carrot, and some celery.

That simmered for around an hour, until the beef was starting to get pretty tender. Then came beets, which I had previously baked until they were tender (about 1 1/4 hours at 350°) and chopped, one diced apple, and a bunch of fresh shell beans (maybe 1 1/2 cups worth).  Simmered another hour, then added salt, pepper and dill weed.

I served it with a big bowl of potato and cheese pirogi, and some sour cream.  Not only was it pretty darn tasty, but there was plenty left over for another time.

OK, call it a niche market, but if you really want it, you can get Hufu, a soy based product that “tastes like human flesh”.  Their website claims that, contrary to common wisdom, human flesh doesn’t taste like chicken.  Apparently it tastes like Hufu.   I’ll take their word for it, I think. [via Strange New Products]