The Picnic Luncheon: The Plan

Last Year's Picnick, by Blue Dragon Media

Having gazed at Mrs. Beeton's picnic menus (see my last post,) and at the menu suggestions provided by Buckeye Cookery, to wit: 

Cold roast chicken; ham broiled on coals; fish fried or broiled; sardines; tongue; hard-boiled eggs; eggs to be fried or scrambled; Boston corn bread; buttered rolls; ham sandwiches prepared with grated ham; orange marmalade; canned peaches; watermelon and beet sweet-pickles; euchered plums; variety or bottled pickles; chow-chow; quince or plum jelly; raspberry or other jams; Scotch fruit, rolled jelly, chocolate, Minnehaha, old-fashioned loaf, and marble cake; coffee, chocolate, tea; cream and sugar; salt and pepper; oranges.

I have thus come up with a somewhat simple plan for our own picnic. I'm hoping to stay away from fish, simply because it's an expense and a process that I don't want to engage myself in right now (as much as I'd like to smoke a side of salmon for my friends, the cost might be a bit prohibitive, even with a good job such as I have right now.)

A simple luncheon, then, to serve roughly 12 people:

• Chicken Pie (2)
• Cold Roast Beef with Appropriate Sauce (1 large joint)
• Cucumber Salad (1 quart)
• Pickles and Relishes (1-2 quarts)
• Hard-Boiled Eggs (1 dozen)
• Fresh Berries and Fruit (2 quarts)
• Fruit Tarts (12 small)
• Cheese, Butter, Bread, Biscuits, Jam
• Iced Tea (4 bottles)
• Wine (2 bottles)

You may as well put away your picnicking-baskets, I think this will win the all-time award for 'best picnic ever.'

Another Picnic!

Once again, yours truly will probably
win the annual croquet game.

Once again, it is May, and with the advent of spring comes picnics and celebrations. This year, I'm off (once again) to the Grand Ledge Victorian Days celebration, and have resolved to provide a completely different picnic luncheon experience to my friends and companions who will be joining me.

As with last year, we shall once again be taking part in that great Victorian tradition of picnicking by a battlefield, enjoying the great sport of war! It's never caused us any trouble before, you see: We go down, watch the battle from an encampment, and go home, the war concluded in an afternoon of glory and honor. There's no way it could go any differently, is there?

We are provided, as mentioned in last year's post about this very event, with some picnic luncheon menus by the Buckeye Cookery cook-book, and these are quite lovely, but Mrs. Beeton also offers two menus for picnics that I had not previously paid much attention to—so it is to them that I intend to look first.

A Soup Banquet

Coming this month at Off the Beaten Path is another in my series of Steamfeasts. In response to a massive showing of interest in the various soups that I have prepared at home and abroad (i.e., in the houses of others,) I was offered the suggestion that I might prepare a meal entirely consisting of soups. I thought this a capital idea, and have prepared the following menu, showcasing a variety of soups from simple to complex, elegant to rustic.

Several of the recipes are things I've prepared before, which makes this a slightly less productive feast in terms of blog content. However, each soup has its own garnish that I will discuss in turn, as well as posting recipes for the new soups.

Chicken Consommé
Leek Royale

Tomato-Basil Bisque
Parmesan and Garlic Crouton

Potage Printanier
Carrot Coulis

Mulligatawny Soup
Boiled Rice

Peach–Yogurt Soup
Palmier

A St. Patrick's Day Feast

This Friday (admittedly one day after the actual holiday,) I shall be creating yet another feast at Off the Beaten Path Books, themed on the immediately proximal day of excess and Irish pride. Seeking to avoid the traditional perception of Irish food as bland, boiled stuff, I have come up with a menu fusing traditional recipes with modern presentations and sensibilities.

For those of you in the area, seats are still available, so head to the event page to purchase your seat now—$25 gets you the whole menu.

The menu will be as follows:

Corned Beef

Cabbage and Roasted Fingerling Potato Salad

Garlic Soup

Soda Bread Crouton - Potato Crisp

Kilkenny Salad

Poached Pear - Goat Cheese - Oven-Baked Potato Cake

Mâche - Arugula

Beef, Carrot and Stout Casserole with Barley

Colcannon - Soda Bread

Brian Bóru's Delight

Bread and Butter Pudding - Whiskey Sultanas

Whiskey Sauce - Blackcurrant Fool

"What butter and whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for."

Dinner Party

Bartending, on the other hand, is a job
full of thanks and contact with people.
Photo by Don Watts

Being a cook is not an easy job. You work in a small, hot, dangerous space for a long time, and if you're doing things right nobody who is consuming your food should interact with you for more than a few minutes when, and if, you go out to take your curtain call—because, in truth, there is not a single soul who does not like to be applauded.

When someone appreciates your work, therefore, it is always a remarkably pleasing experience, and to be asked to produce a dinner party is a sign of confidence and a recognition of talent. Being a cook can be a rewarding job.

I've been asked to create a simple dinner party for the most frequent and prolific customers of Off the Beaten Path Books. Five courses at the most, simple, but delicious. It's scheduled to go off on the 25th of this month, three weeks from today.

It's a chance to strut my stuff for paying guests, to push the limits of the space in which I will cook, and—of course—to make delicious food with a historical flair.

State Dinner at the Dolmabahçe

The Dolmabahçe is a beautiful palace in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey. Home to sultans from its construction until the abolition of the Caliphate, the Dolmabahçe is an excellent example of in-period cultural fusion. From Wikipedia:

The Dolmabahçe Palace

The Dolmabahçe Palace was ordered by the Empire's 31st Sultan, Abdülmecid I, and built between the years 1843 and 1856. [...] The construction works cost five million Ottoman mecidiye gold coins, the equivalent of 35 tonnes of gold. Fourteen tonnes of gold in the form of gold leaf were used to gild the ceilings of the [...] palace.
The design contains eclectic elements from the Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical styles, blended with traditional Ottoman architecture to create a new synthesis. The palace layout and décor reflect the increasing influence of European styles and standards on Ottoman culture and art during the Tanzimat period. Functionally, on the other hand, it retains elements of traditional Ottoman palace life, and also features of traditional Turkish homes.

Tea for Ten

Cranberry-Orange Scones

My services were engaged this past weekend, to produce tea service for 10 on Sunday. While I did not make everything completely from scratch, there's a fair bit of this that I produced myself, and I thought I might as well document it here for your edification and information.

Scones - Plain and Orange-Cranberry, with Clotted Cream

Tea Sandwiches - Cucumber with Dill Cream Cheese; Prosciutto, Arugula and Boursin; Roasted Red Pepper, Portobello, and Chive Cream Cheese.

A Fruit Platter and A Cheese Platter

Chocolate Mousse and Palmiers

Proceed for pictures, recipes, and presentations.

Monthly Steampunk Feast No. 1

Hello, visitors from StumbleUpon! Welcome. Check out the main page or some recipes, why don't you?

The banquet requires one large staff.

A local bookstore has asked me to start offering monthly meals with a steampunk theme, and so for the first endeavor I have decided to go forth, full steam ahead, with no reservations.

The goal here is to fuse modern techniques and culinary understanding with an older approach to food and service—so, hopefully I will be able to engage enough people to have Russian Service and a respectable kitchen brigade. I won't deign to wear the round toque, but at least I'll cook well and have fun.

I shall either sink or swim on the merits of the following menu:

Steampunk Hanukkah Dinner

Shortly, some friends and I are getting together to celebrate Hanukkah. It'll be a little late to fall during the actual holiday (which runs from December 1 to December 8 this year,) but the spirit will pervade our every action. We're hoping for a large banquet—at the moment we stand about 14 confirmed guests—and to that end we've decided to go for the gusto and produce a multi-course meal, somewhat taking our inspiration from Victorian menus (though with much less food served per course.)

Cooking for Hannukah has a theme to it—oil and cheese. The miracle of Hanukkah involves oil miraculously burning for 8 days, and so in remembrance of that, things are fried. Lots of things are fried. Cheese comes from an adjunct historical piece, the story of Judith and Holofernes. We've decided to take a multinational, multicultural, historical, Jewish approach to the meal, combining recipes from an old Jewish cookbook, from our family traditions, from our cultural backgrounds, and from our imaginations—the sort of thing that Steampunk is all about.

The menu, which will begin to be linked to recipe posts, is below.