They say it’s all in the prep, and who am I to argue? So we went at it with attitude. Well, at least I did. The children didn’t really catch on until the day of the banquet when they miraculously turned into mini Super men and women, whizzing around enthusiastically (well, nearly) doing my every bidding (again, nearly).
I had woken up rather disconcertingly to a five year old sitting on my bed staring down at me, approximately three inches away from my face, 5am in the morning. Given I’d got to sleep two hours previously I was not amused. In fact I very nearly jumped out of my skin. I attempted to tuck her down in Gary’s side of the bed and sternly told her to go back to sleep. Alas she was far too interested in stroking my arm (!) to make any attempt at close eye, and so we got up and started our day, hours earlier than would have been my preference.
There is something to be said for starting the day earlier than planned, and given it was the day of our banquet and we were expecting to feed 12 that very evening, a few extra hours wouldn’t go amiss. We had already done a run through of the actual presentation to my mum the day before, a sort of dress rehearsal. C11 had been feeling terrible (she is the last in our family to have caught the cold that’s been going around) and could barely talk, let alone enthusiastically on her topic of medieval fashions. We all did our best and retired for the day with the knowledge that we had an enormous amount to do the next day and we would probably be one man down.
C rallied, however, and in spite of feeling like rubbish she did her level best to participate as much as she could in the preparations of the feast. And there was much to do…cleaning for example:
Much, much cooking, which L11 and I did together:
- Melting the butter for the pork roll filling
- Stuffing the goose
- Basting the goose
- Making the raspberry coulis
We were planning on using bread trenchers as plates and so made those the day before:
- Grinding the flour
- L mixed the flour with an egg, water, oil and yeast
- We baked them in the hot oven for 30 or so mins and then left them in a cool oven for maybe 6 hours to completely dry them out.
- They were rock solid, really – if we had thrown them at glass the glass would have shattered rather than the dish. That hard.
L worked so hard on the day of the feast producing much food, all ready to be popped into the oven to cook in the hours before the guest arrived:
We cooked only food which would have been around in the middle ages, which meant no potatoes
- Roasted carrots and squash
- Pears in a spicy red wine sauce
- Roasted beetroot and red and white onions
- Cherry pottage
Presentation boards and props were gathered and displayed in readiness for the presentations:
- C11 collected all the costumes
- Medieval signs
- Wooden bowls for hand washing, salt and desert
- One of the place settings – bread trencher, wooden spoon and wooden cup
However, we did get the odd moment for relaxation:
Four thirty came about quickly (this was the time the guests were arriving). L11 was due start proceedings with her presentation which would aim to educate our guests in the etiquette expected of them during the feast – y’know burping and so forth….
More next week!
I love the bread plates. What an amazing idea. The whole event looks smashing.
Blessings, Dawn
It did go really well, but I am officially exhausted!
Wow! The food looks incredible! What a tremendous achievement.
As a fellow insomniac, I feel for you on the start to your day. You must have been ready to drop my mid-afternoon!
I’ve really enjoyed the past few days doing absolutely nothing! I could definitely get used to the lazy life!
Oh, my stars! Everything looks so utterly FANTASTIC!!!!!
Love, love the plates. The food looks delicious. I hope you will put up a post on recipes. Love the plates. Where do you find wooden cups?
I really don’t know how you do it, Claire. So little sleep and still able to function. I miss a couple of hours and it takes me days to recover.
It is great to have children who pitch in and help get things done. That is what really makes a family function well together. Poor C. I hope everyone is feeling better now.
You are such a tease!!!! I hope the pictures from the presentations are coming – S O O N!!!!!
Have a lovely weekend as we rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
The plates were seriously good, and well worth doing. The wooden cups were a find on Ebay for 49p for 3. Unfortunately we only have 3.
Hope you have a lovely and peaceful Easter weekend.
Oh, you left me on such a cliffhanger! I can’t wait to hear more.
I will tell all next week, if I can gather the energy to do so!!
This looks super fun and yummy!
Thank you so much!
Oh, it looks like so much fun. We did a Roman feast earlier in the year when we were studying the ancient Romans. It’s so much fun to do something like this!
It really is. It’s a good way to finish up a study as well.
Tons of work but it looks so nummy! I’m glad everyone had such fun and helped out. I can’t wait to find out how it turned out!!
Thank you. It was incredible fun and worth the work. (I’ve enjoyed the last few days doing nothing though!)
Such hard work, and you can see the results even in the preparation. Great job guys.
Aw, thank you Ticia!
Oh my! I can’t imagine doing all that work! At least everyone looks very happy doing it! Everything looks lovely. Can’t wait to hear more!
Thanks Sylvia!
Just the prep work along is proof of how amazing this feast was! I love living vicariously through your family 🙂 So much fun! Enjoy your much deserved rest 🙂
Thank you Marie. I needed a break, so we took two weeks off, but we’re back tomorrow and looking forward to it!
Wow, it all looks amazing, can’t wait to hear more!
Thanks Debbie!