About 2 months ago Sara planned a trip to the Scarborough Renaissance Faire in Waxahatchie. According to the website, it's one of the biggest in the Southwest. She made hotel reservations, I got the tickets from the base travel agencey. We decide not to go in garb, mainly because I was worried about the heat, this is Texas after all.
Worried about the heat? Silly man, you should have worried about the rain! It rained and rained, turning the faire into a big soggy mess. Mud on everything. Muddy fairies, muddy queens, muddy musketeers and highlanders. Mud may be "period"but man is it a buzzkill. I still had a good time. The site is cool as hell, lots of little fanciful renaissance-ish stores and buildings. Funny acts and great music. Awesome food, too. I had some of the best tiramisu there. There is a bakery just as you get thru the main gates that is hella good as well.
If money were no object, I could have easily dropped in excess of 1500 bucks on clothes and weapons.
Rowen had a good time, despite the rain and being a little sick. There was a petting zoo, elephant and camel rides. Princesses, fairies, battling girls (what she calls women in armour), jousting juggling. Fun stuff for the monkey.
Then, even with the rain, belly dancers, bodices, corsets and thigh high boots. What more can a geek boy want?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Color me embarassed
This weekend I went to a SCA event hosted by my local shire. I had a great time. I got my butt whupped in the tournament, but I had some great pick up fights afterwards. I was also awarded "best death" by the ladies of the Amazon household. Even in death can a true warrior be victorious ;-) Some really good instruction on glaive and great sword by people who had a great grasp on the dynamics of the weapon form.
Here I had been ranting about the shire, like i said, color me embarrassed. Abilene still sucks, though.
No recipes this weekend, since i was camping out.
Here I had been ranting about the shire, like i said, color me embarrassed. Abilene still sucks, though.
No recipes this weekend, since i was camping out.
Monday, May 14, 2007
I HATE MY HELMET
There is just no way around it, I hate my bascinet. I cannot get the dang thing to fit right, even after a year. My old beat up homemade helmet fits sooooo much better. Patrick is just SOL if he shows up to the event this weekend, I'm wearing old faithful for the tournement.
When Otto gets back from Califronia, I need to see if his simple round top helm fits my noggin. If so, I'll be hitting up Ashkraft baker for one. Sara is so going to make fun of me. 3 helms in 3 years.
When Otto gets back from Califronia, I need to see if his simple round top helm fits my noggin. If so, I'll be hitting up Ashkraft baker for one. Sara is so going to make fun of me. 3 helms in 3 years.
Mother's Day Chowdown
So yesterday was Mother's Day and I asked Sara to pick the menu for the day. Breakfast was easy, punkin' pancakes. I love my new griddle and flipper that Sara bought for me from Penney's. Not only does it make kickbutt pancakes, but it makes one mean stovetop frittata. But I digress. Punkin' pancakes, sausage and bacon.
Punkin' Pancakes
2 cups Krusteaz pancake mix ( or whatever you use, or scratch made pancakes)
1 cup water ( or a bit less than the mix calls for)
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pie mix, just plain ole punkin)
3 tbl brown sugar
Pumpkin Pie spice to taste
Mix until everything is mositened, cook on a hot griddle until brown. if you use krusteaz, you'll need a pretty hot griddle, they're really thick pancakes and you want to avoid that yucky uncooked batter in the middle
Now 1 cup pumpkin from a normal sized can leaves about 1 cup left. I was going to use it to make a smoothie, but I remembered what a dismal failure that was, so Sara suggested pumpkin bread. I came across this recipe for punkin bread which I used to make orange-punkin muffins.
Orange-Punkin Muffins
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 tbl baking powder
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp ginger
1 tbl saigon cinnamon ( definately use the saigaon cinnamon, soo much better than regular cinnamon)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp orange extract
2 eggs beaten
mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the wet stuff. Preheat the oven t0 350. this reciepe will fit into 12 normal sized muffin cups or a normal loaf pan (if you wnat to make it bread) Bake the muffins for 30 minutes or the bread for 50-60, use the comes out clean method to see if they are done. Serve warm with lightly salted butter, yummy!
For lunch I just made some feta, grape tomato and english cucumber salad along with bumble bee smoked salmon on melba toasts. Easy and healthy! ( not my usual forte', I must admit )
For dinner, Sara picked a recipe from Brittany. Poulet avec cidre (chicken with cider). The recipe called for dry cider and apple brandy (Calvados), things i always kept on hand in Germany, but had to leave behind when we moved to Texas. I hit the commisary, class VI and the local package stores, I found cider (Woodchuck and Hornsby's), but no apple brandy. Apfelkorn, but that's apple infused corn moonshine from Germany, so that was right out. Undetered, I pressed on.
Poulet avec Cidre and Sour cream mashed taters
1 chicken, cut up
3 small shallots, sliced thin
2 apples, peeled and chunked
1 cup cider
4 tbls heavy cream ( Sara and Rowen have milk issues, so I used fat free evaporated milk)
1 generous shot apple brandy ( I used oak aged Glennlivet instead, still turned out yummy)
Butter, bacon grease, oil or lots of nonstick spray( the recipe book says to use either butter with sea salt or bacon grease)
Brown the chicken with the shallots and apples in your fat of choice, keep cooking and turning for about 20 minutes or so. ( Is that still browning?) If your pan is big enough, add the cider, cream and brandy, simmer covered for 30 minutes more. If your pans are size challenged, (like mine) transfer your chicken, shallots and apples to a big pot and simmer for 30 minutes.
For the taters, peel, slice and boil the potatoes (3 minutes in the pressure cooker). Drain, add sour cream and mash. Salt and spice to taste.
Sara really liked this meal, made us miss Europe. For desert, i sliced up some stramberries and a store bought cheese cake.
Punkin' Pancakes
2 cups Krusteaz pancake mix ( or whatever you use, or scratch made pancakes)
1 cup water ( or a bit less than the mix calls for)
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pie mix, just plain ole punkin)
3 tbl brown sugar
Pumpkin Pie spice to taste
Mix until everything is mositened, cook on a hot griddle until brown. if you use krusteaz, you'll need a pretty hot griddle, they're really thick pancakes and you want to avoid that yucky uncooked batter in the middle
Now 1 cup pumpkin from a normal sized can leaves about 1 cup left. I was going to use it to make a smoothie, but I remembered what a dismal failure that was, so Sara suggested pumpkin bread. I came across this recipe for punkin bread which I used to make orange-punkin muffins.
Orange-Punkin Muffins
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 tbl baking powder
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp ginger
1 tbl saigon cinnamon ( definately use the saigaon cinnamon, soo much better than regular cinnamon)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp orange extract
2 eggs beaten
mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the wet stuff. Preheat the oven t0 350. this reciepe will fit into 12 normal sized muffin cups or a normal loaf pan (if you wnat to make it bread) Bake the muffins for 30 minutes or the bread for 50-60, use the comes out clean method to see if they are done. Serve warm with lightly salted butter, yummy!
For lunch I just made some feta, grape tomato and english cucumber salad along with bumble bee smoked salmon on melba toasts. Easy and healthy! ( not my usual forte', I must admit )
For dinner, Sara picked a recipe from Brittany. Poulet avec cidre (chicken with cider). The recipe called for dry cider and apple brandy (Calvados), things i always kept on hand in Germany, but had to leave behind when we moved to Texas. I hit the commisary, class VI and the local package stores, I found cider (Woodchuck and Hornsby's), but no apple brandy. Apfelkorn, but that's apple infused corn moonshine from Germany, so that was right out. Undetered, I pressed on.
Poulet avec Cidre and Sour cream mashed taters
1 chicken, cut up
3 small shallots, sliced thin
2 apples, peeled and chunked
1 cup cider
4 tbls heavy cream ( Sara and Rowen have milk issues, so I used fat free evaporated milk)
1 generous shot apple brandy ( I used oak aged Glennlivet instead, still turned out yummy)
Butter, bacon grease, oil or lots of nonstick spray( the recipe book says to use either butter with sea salt or bacon grease)
Brown the chicken with the shallots and apples in your fat of choice, keep cooking and turning for about 20 minutes or so. ( Is that still browning?) If your pan is big enough, add the cider, cream and brandy, simmer covered for 30 minutes more. If your pans are size challenged, (like mine) transfer your chicken, shallots and apples to a big pot and simmer for 30 minutes.
For the taters, peel, slice and boil the potatoes (3 minutes in the pressure cooker). Drain, add sour cream and mash. Salt and spice to taste.
Sara really liked this meal, made us miss Europe. For desert, i sliced up some stramberries and a store bought cheese cake.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Flickr
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Ok, so it's supposed to have a picture. Ah, well it's time to watch the telly, so enough computer foolishness.
, a fancy photo sharing thing.Ok, so it's supposed to have a picture. Ah, well it's time to watch the telly, so enough computer foolishness.
Flamin'hot potato salad!!!!!!
Holy crap was this stuff hot. Granted I'm a whitebread boy from South Jersey, but whoo! Anyhow, here's what happend. I nabbed some boar's head gen-u-wine casing beef franfurters and figured that potato salad would go good with grilled dogs.
So I cook the taters and decide that instead of relish and mayo, I'll use some horseradish mustard, garlic, onion powder, rice vinegar and 1/4 TEASPOON of Thai chili powder. Should be just a little spicey, right? No, sir-e-bob, this stuff was up there with kimchi for hot. I saved about a cup and rinsed the rest of the taters and made more conventional potato salad for Sara and Rowen. They said it was yummy! (Praise does not come easily from my wife and child) Here's the recipe for the hot stuff:
3 c. Sliced and boiled potatoes
1 c. mayo ( I like helman's)
3 tbl horseradish mustard (Grey Poupon)
1 tbl rice vinegar
1/4 tsp Thai Chili powder
5 hard shakes of the garlic powder jar
3 hard shakes of the onion powder
Put the potatoes in a big bowl, mix the other ingredients in a different bowl, pour them over the taters, mix gently so you don't mash your taters. Chill.
After being the fridge for about 6 hours, the salad was just spicey hot, not oh-dear-lord-jesus-i-have-just-ingested-napalm hot.
If you eat spicey stuff all the time, this might be pretty tame. Since Sara thinks spice means adding dill to the sour cream, I don't eat spicey that oftern. Even deep in West Texas.
So I cook the taters and decide that instead of relish and mayo, I'll use some horseradish mustard, garlic, onion powder, rice vinegar and 1/4 TEASPOON of Thai chili powder. Should be just a little spicey, right? No, sir-e-bob, this stuff was up there with kimchi for hot. I saved about a cup and rinsed the rest of the taters and made more conventional potato salad for Sara and Rowen. They said it was yummy! (Praise does not come easily from my wife and child) Here's the recipe for the hot stuff:
3 c. Sliced and boiled potatoes
1 c. mayo ( I like helman's)
3 tbl horseradish mustard (Grey Poupon)
1 tbl rice vinegar
1/4 tsp Thai Chili powder
5 hard shakes of the garlic powder jar
3 hard shakes of the onion powder
Put the potatoes in a big bowl, mix the other ingredients in a different bowl, pour them over the taters, mix gently so you don't mash your taters. Chill.
After being the fridge for about 6 hours, the salad was just spicey hot, not oh-dear-lord-jesus-i-have-just-ingested-napalm hot.
If you eat spicey stuff all the time, this might be pretty tame. Since Sara thinks spice means adding dill to the sour cream, I don't eat spicey that oftern. Even deep in West Texas.
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