Holy crap, I think I just redacted a period recipe!

In researching period bread, I came across this website: http://www.whirlwind-design.com/madbaker/breadfaq.html#Q2, which had this recipe from Libro Nuovo: Prima per Fare Cinquante Pani de Latte e Zuccaro di Oncie nove l'uno"Fatto Che haverai la tua Sconza, o levaturo, pigliarai di fiori di farina burattata libre 35. e tanto meno, quanto meno sara quella di che haverai fatto il levaturo, e libre 6.di zuccaro ben bianco, e Torli dUova 75 e libre 3 d'acqua rosata, e libre 6 di latte fresco, e oncie 6 di butiro fresco, e impastarai il tuo Pane, avuertirai bene, chee l'acqua, o latte non scottasse, e farai anchor ache torli d'uovu sian caldetti, & li scalderai, ponondoli nell'acqua calda, e li porri, il conveniente sale, e farai la pasta, sic he non siane dura, ne tenera, ma pui tosto ch'habbia del saldetto, e la gramarai moto bene, e poi farai il tuo pane, e lo lasciaraben (?) levare, e lo cuocerai con grande ordine, si che non pigli troppo fuoco, ma che al tuo Giuditio stia bene, e questo pane e piu bell a farlo tondo, che intorto, o in pinzoni, sia dopoi piu grande, o piu picciolo, come tu vorrai: ti governerai adunque secondo questo modo, che e provato."

This translates to: When you have made your sourdough or yeast, you shall take thirty-five pounds of the flower of sifted wheat and a much less amount, so that it shall be enough to have made the yeast (starter), and six pounds of good white sugar, and seventy-five egg yolks, three pounds of rose water, and six pounds of fresh milk, and six ounces of fresh butter, and you shall knead your bread.You shall note well that the water or milk does not scorch, and you shall make certain that the egg yolks are to be warm, and you shall scald them, putting in the hot water. And you shall put suitable salt, and you shall make the dough, so that it is neither hard nor tender, but harder than you shall have at firm. And you shall knead it very well and then you shall make your bread, and you shall leave them to rise well, and you shall cook them with serious method so that they do not take too much fire, but that at your very good judgment.And this bread is more beautiful by making them round, that twist, or in buns. Then they can be made larger or smaller, what ever you shall want. You shall govern yourself to one according to this way, which is proven.

This has got to be the recipe for the baker's daily batch, or something. 35 lbs of flour does not make one family's daily bread. I took the amounts, converted them (VERY approximately) to volumetric measurements and got:
140 cups flour, 12 c milk, 23 c sugar, 6 c rosewater.
I think the 6 ounces of butter is wrong. I think it should be 6 lbs for 35 lbs of flour. Most bread recipes call for between 3 and 5 cups of flour. I decided to go with 5. Scaling this down for a recipe calling for 5 cups of flour, I got:
5 c flour, 1/2 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 egg yolks, 3 tbsp rosewater, 6 tbsp butter.
Based on other recipes, those proportions look about right to me for a sweet bread.

I think I'm going to go with a starter on this. Not a sourdough starter, but basically combining the yeast with some of the flour and some water and letting it sit overnight to sort of give the yeast a head start. I think it will also help with the texture. Rose bread. It will be an interesting experiment. It will also be a test of baking by feel. I also want to go with the recipe for plain bread that's on the same website. Again, interesting experiment in baking by feel.

SCA griping

I've been part of many discussions of the SCA, and specifically, what's wrong with our local group. The event last weekend showed an alarming trend in very glaring light. The barony just won't pull together anymore. The leadership, in my opinion, is not doing enough to step in if it's obvious that someone isn't quite doing their job. The seneschal could have told the autocrat to find a co-autocrat who could come to business meetings, or the bid would be withdrawn, but that didn't happen. A lot of people have also been taking the attitude that if they're not on the bid, it's not their responsibility, or if they have a pointy hat, or have been in so long, kissed so much ass, are so important, it's not their responsibility. News flash people: if the barony is hosting an event, and you are a member of said barony, yes, it is your responsibility. There was no nastycrat this weekend. The bathrooms didn't get cleaned, because nobody ever volunteered to clean them. Why not? Granted, I could have done more than I did, too, but what about our peers, our leaders? Why didn't someone have a herald announce "we need volunteers, if you're willing to help, come see the autocrat?" Why didn't the autocrat, acting seneschal, baronet, or local peer grab a couple of barony members before site opened, or shortly after, and say, the nastycrat's not here yet, can you help clean the toilets, they look really bad?

Two things that I wish I could put on a banner to hang at every event: "They rule because we believe," and "it will not be, unless we make it so."

One more minor, ok, catty, thing: if your corset nips in at the waist and flares over your hips, to give you an hourglass figure, it is a Victorian style corset. It is 200 years out of period for the SCA, don't wear it. Also, corsets are underwear. Underwear on the outside is only for superheroes, or to go up a level in Super Munchkin. For the chemise/skirt/supportive garment outfit, you need a bodice, which may or may not be boned for support, and should stop at the waist all the way around, except maybe for a point in the front. If your bodice is not boned, you need a corset, but it should be one that gives a conical or cylindrical line to the torso. That is period. Hourglass figures (or emphasizing them) are not.

I have two rosebuds on my bush! I can't wait for them to open!

Who the hell rakes the forest?

Well, the weekend was.....interesting. Looked after Hunter at Live Weapons. It was fun, but tiring. It was hard being tied down and not be able to just go do something. Of course, it also didn't help that I had been in fairly serious pain from straining a muscle the night before, and hadn't slept well at all. I learned (too late) that if I'd taken her back to the cabin, instead of staying in the hall, she probably would have taken a nap. Oh, well, I know for future reference. Making up the pallet on the floor worked really well. I put a bigger, slightly scrunched quilt down, and put a smaller one on top. That way, she had space outside the play yard to move around, and cushioning from the inevitable face-plants when she lost her balance. The problem was that the idea was to have a clean space off the nasty floor. Would have been nice if people had kept their dirty shoes off it when they came to make funny faces at the baby. I was particularly pissed at certain people who wheeled their big-ass stroller across it. I won't mention names, but one of them made a point of talking to Hunter, while I was holding her, without so much as saying "hello" to me. Oh, well, must let go of being angry over this crap.

Hunter liked my honey bear, she talked to it a lot, and she really liked it when Leif made the bear talk. One day I will remind her of this, and that SCA awards are nice, but you shouldn't get so attached that you wouldn't let a child play with your regalia, because after all, it's just a game.

Didn't end up dancing. I'm pretty disappointed about that. By that point, though, I felt pretty bad. We ended up leaving after feast to go home, because I so badly wanted to sleep in my own bed. I was afraid that, after a week of getting up early and being really tired, if I didn't get good sleep Saturday, I would be in bad shape for the rest of the week.

We were warned before the business meeting that some people had some "concerns" about Taloha. Of course, none of these people with "concerns" were people who have done work on the site. Some of them were legitimate. The caretaker needs to get off his butt and start doing more. We keep getting told that he's going to take care of this and that, and from one work day to the next, nothing gets done. There was no nastycrat to clean the bathrooms this time, so yeah, they were gross (which is typical), but the white toilet that was dark gray on the inside was a bit much. Wouldn't kill the guy to occasionally spray the toilets, showers, and mattresses in the cabins with a bleach solution to keep the mold and mildew down. Some of the stuff was unfair, though. Someone complained that the wooded area where people were camping, and in between the cabins wasn't raked. Now, they keep the roads clear (it's been graded and gaveled recently, btw), they keep the grass mowed, which I typically see at campgrounds. Who the hell rakes the woods? Nobody, because it's the woods. When you camp at a state park, do you complain to the ranger that your campsite has leaves all over it? No, because you're in the damn forest! There are trees there, and they drop leaves! You want it raked, rake it your damn self! Concerned about running to the pool or bathhouse barefoot? WEAR SHOES! By the way, there are bugs, too. Don't like it? Bring a can of Raid.

Dear Mr. Barrowman,

I loved you on Doctor Who and Torchwood. Captain Jack is awesome. I also enjoyed the BBC documentary about your sexual orientation. The research is pretty cool. I was surprised when a friend pointed out that you appeared in the recent version of The Producers. I hadn't recognized you. Again, awesome performance. You really do have an excellent voice.

They just finished airing Any Dream Will Do on BBC America, and now I'm seeing promos for How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? My question is, why? I realize you've achieved Gay Icon status, and that's great and all, but are all the musical theater search shows really necessary? You did the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat one, why not stop? Was there a gap that we didn't get over here in the states, or is the London theatre's business plan for Andrew Lloyd Weber to single-handedly populate the West End with revivals that have been pimped to a fare-thee-well by reality tv shows? Possibly best to take the revival route, because a man can only re-write the same music so many different ways. I think people started to catch on after Phantom.

Anyway, I would really like to see you, you know, act some more. I'm looking forward to the next season of Torchwood. I'm sorry it will be the last. Please make the reality talent search shows stop!

Sincerely,
April C.


*And now for something completely different, the choli worked (yea!) I'm doing the same routine that I did at Newbie Collegium a year and a half ago, but really, I think the only person who'd notice is maybe Amina.

I thought last week would be easy. I was wrong. First of all, I was sick all last weekend. I thought it was allergies, but then Neale got it, so it was a cold. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent cleaning and packing my classroom. Thursday ended up being eaten up entirely be lawn care and errands. Friday was my one day off. I tried working on the lengha choli for Live Weapons. Choli is half done. It needs sleeves and finishing. I think I'm going to sew about three pairs of ties along the sides and tie it closed. If it gaps, people will see the band of my bra, big deal. It's an easy fix. If it doesn't work, the dance plan will go on hold until a later event. The skirt.....the sari fabric is awful, evil, and ravels like a son of a bitch. Fortunately, I have a blue skirt already. It's not a pretty, swirly skirt, but I can wear the royal blue skirt and hip scarf with the turquoise choli, and be monochromatic, if not matching. Unfortunately, the pretty silver jewelry set Neale ordered isn't going to be here in time for the event, which is just one more sign that maybe I should just give up on the plans for this event, and put them off for later.

I think I'm going to work on embroidering a handkerchief and possibly make parsley bread for the Standard Bearer competition. After all, why not go big my first time out? I could end up Baronial A&S champion for my first competition.....but not likely. For the handkerchief, I'm thinking oak trees in opposite corners, red roses with stems in the other two corners, a blue border, and maybe a blue peacock in the center. I need to get around to drawing my device, but I'm kind of thinking I'm going to do the silver oak tree, on a blue or blue and green field, with red roses across the top. I just think the peacock would be cool. I want to incorporate more blue into the design, and I want to have something in the center. Eventually, I think it would be cool to take some of the pictures I have of the pietra dura stonework from the Taj Mahal and embroider a hanging based on those designs. There's a really beautiful one with flowers in the center and an arabesque design around it. That's a project that would take ages, though.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Yea! The week of madness is very nearly over! Neale started working on the lawn tonight. Considering he's never mown a lawn in his life, it's not bad. He wants to get a push mower. Not because he wants to be eco-friendly, but because I refuse to use the gas mower, because I don't like loud machinery (also the reason I don't like skill saws, and will avoid using them whenever possible), and he wants to share the joy of lawn care.

The magnolia is sick. This is really bad, because it's very close to the sunroom, and the place where the power line comes into the house, and the fence. If it dies, removing it will have to be a professional job, and therefore, expensive. I called a tree specialist, a state-certified arborist, according to the Yellow Page listing, who gave us an estimate of $250 to come and apply fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide over a couple of weeks. Apparently, this will involve climbing up into the tree to apply stuff, which I am happy to pay someone to do. I remember my broken arm, it hurt like a bitch.

I have discovered Shimmy. Fit TV has a bellydance show. It's on at 3 every day, and on Tuesday night. I record it. It's basically little half hour workouts that focus on 4 or 5 different moves. I dig it, because it's not overly complicated, it's not five hundred choreography-specific things. It's pretty much "here's this step" (repeat several times), "now let's put these together," and from there, it's pretty much switching off from one to another, in different orders. It's only been a few days, but it seems to be a better way of working on the things I have trouble with (mostly figuring out what to do next) than the dvd's I have. They're either pre-choreographed, usually so specific that the combos aren't applicable to other situations, or it's so open-ended that I have a hard time getting a sense of how to put things together. Really, I need to get with Trudy about dance lessons. Mom's old teacher is apparently still around, too. That would be cool. But there's the issue of style. I'm highly unlikely to dance for an audience outside the SCA. Egyptian cabaret is not the most appropriate style for the SCA. It's pretty, especially the decorated bra and belt sets and the circle skirts, but there are too many modern influences. I do dig veil work, though. It's pretty. And my idea of what constitutes bellydance is still influenced by watching my mom practice when I was a little girl. No jewel in the navel, though.

OT - but it's my blog.

I saw on the stupid joke that is Fox News that the RNC is talking about re-naming the Democratic Party the Democratic Socialist Party. If they can do that, can I re-name the Republican party the Fascist Asshole Party? It's pretty sad when the right-wing "news" casters on Fox ask the rep from the RNC if they don't have more important things to do than re-name another party.

On the bright side, I got my garden planted this weekend. All my seedlings are in the ground. Now, it's up to them to be tough. I'd post more now, but I have to go finish making dinner.