Well 3 rapier practices in and I’m starting to get hooked again.  I’ve started working on persona ideas, and am likely leaning towards the tudor or pre-tudor era.  My viking would just not look right wielding a rapier.

My thanks to Wilhelm, Chris and Cristabelle for the warm welcomes and re-introduction to the SCA.  Now I’m hunting for rapier gear and starting to work on ideas for garb.  That and all this rapier talk has me watching the Pirates movies from a completely different viewpoint.

Gotta eventually get back to scanning my SCA pics and posting them…

Finally made it out to Rapier pactice.  Being old, and horrible with names, I can’t say exactly who was there (lol).  Honest guys, I’ll remember after the next time we get together.  I’m pretty sure there was a Cedric there, but I think there’s a Cedric at every event and practive I’ve ever been to.

As the Marshall wasn’t present, there was no fighting to be done but I did get an overview of the rapier armor and protective requirements as well as the Rapier I’ll eventually have to buy (A Darkwood Armory creation).    Practice may be cancelled this week, but I’ll bring my camera next week so I can get some pics up.

Next:  A Canton meeting (coming up on the 27th).

Douglas Mullen - 1962-2006 - you will be remembered.  A significant part of the Seashire Shield Wall and an all around great guy.  Will be missed by his friends, wife and children always.

I’ll post some pics of happy times once I can.

Today’s Recipe - Shepherd’s Pie

Also known as Cottage Pie (circa 1770), usually made with Beef (ground, hashed or sliced), potatoes and a vegetable of some sort. Traditionally leftover beef was placed in the bottom of a crock, veggies on top of that then potato chunks, covered in gravy and onions. There are hundreds of variations all over the world. Paté Chinois (Quebec using ground beef and corn), Potatoe Pie (northern US, use greenbeans and hashed roast beef) , UK (scalloped potatoes, onion, ground beef and a cream sauce). Being Canadian, I grew up with Pate Chinois.

• Mashed potatoes
• 1 cup Old Cheddar Cheese
• 1 Can corn
• 3/4-1lb of ground beef
• 1 cup Beef Gravy
• 1 large or 2 small Onions
• Spices (garlic, cloves, salt, pepper)
• Worchestershire sauce

Start the potatoes first, they take the longest. Once they’re cooked, drain and mash them and keep covered if your potatoes are done before the next step.

While the potatoes boil cook the onions in a frying pan and add the spices and the sauce. Once the onions start to soften add the ground beef and cook until browned. Add the gravy and simmer. While this is cooking, warm the corn up (microwave, stovetop..whichever)

In the bottom of a casserole dish (or metal or glass pan, whatever your preference) place the beef/gravy mix. Pour the warmed up corn on top of that. At this point add the grated cheddar cheese to your potatoes with a small bit of cream/milk/butermilk or butter. Stir. Once well mixed, add to the top of the casserole dish.

Throw it in the oven (uncovered) at 300° for 20 minutes. Serves 4 - can serve 40 with enough ingredients and large enough pans.

I’ve added a category for Medieval Cooking. I’ll be adding them to the Medieval Affaire site, but as I re-develop my cooking repertoire I’ll be posting them here.

Yesterday’s Menu - Potato Soup

Potatoes are the stock of any medieval meal. They were plentiful, cheap and easy to grow. At the end of the fall season any veggies starting to age were often added to any soup or stew making for a flavorful, hot defense against the cool fall air. In the winter, veggies from the root celler that hadn’t rotted often were the only thing that made surviving the winter possible. Sometimes veggies that weren’t really palatable were made edible (and disguised) in a Soup or Stew.

• 2 Cups cubed potatoes
• 1 Onion
• 2 Celery Stalks
• 2 Carrots
• Bacon (as much as you want)
• Spices(Fresh dill, celery salt, fresh garlic, cumin coriander)
• Worcestershire sauce (goes in everything we cook)
• Chicken Broth
• 1/2 cup of milk or cream

Cook the bacon crisp first preferably in a cast iron frying pan, drain some of the grease (but not all). Allow the bacon to cool.

Boil the potatoes in a pot of water and some more of the chicken stock with salt added. Throw the veggies into the frying pan and add the spices and some of the fresh dill. Add the worcestershire sauce and some of the chicken broth. Simmer until carrots are soft. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and add the cooked veggies to the pot. Add the rest of the chicken stock. Add the milk/cream.

Heat until it starts to boil, then reduce and simmer. Using a mashing device, mash the potatoes (only slightly, you want to keep some of the potato chunks). Then add the rest of your dill and crumble in the Bacon Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring in the dill. Remove from heat, cover and allow to sit. It will thicken as time passes. Add more milk if you want to thin it out before serving. The starch from the potatoes will turn it in to “stoup”.

Eat. It can serve 2 or it can serve 20. Depends on how big a pot you have

I posted pics from the field battle here.

Next up - single combat tourney from War of the Roses 1991  and Individual Pic Collection (my tribute to those who spawned my SCA existence)

Well I found all the pictures and have managed to sort them into some semblance of order. I’ll be putting up a full gallery as soon as I can get them scanned.

Note: This picture is really really old.

This was my garb in 1989-90. My 14th century japanese persona. It was university and that was my dorm room, just before heading out to one of the events in Seashire (Halifax).

This was my first full attempt at armored combat at War of the Roses. My armor was built from plastic barrels, made for amazing stuff to work with but was completely unnatractive and non-period to look at. The surcoat covers it all, and I had made metal arms for at least a minimal authentic armored look.  This was of course completely countered by my unauthentic hockey-glove gauntlets.  As a campus security guard, I just couldn’t afford steel gauntlets and all my time had been poured into Armor Helm and Garb.

The helm was temporary (very non-japanese) while I built my Japanese helm with the help of a local blacksmith. I had started to rebuild by plastic armor with steel. The pieces all got cut and ground, but by the time that was done University was over and it was time to return to Ottawa.

I’ll be posting the War of the Roses battle images once I get them scanned in. Here’s the first shot:

That’s me on the far left. I had no idea what I was doing. At this point I’d only been involved in 6 man melees. Here I am now with 220 people lining up on either side of a farmers field. I figured if I hit someone, then got killed I was doing good.

That’s all for now. More later.

Never should have left, but that’s another story.

As I mentioned I’ve had two aborted attempts at getting back into the SCA (this year). To motivate myself and to get back into the the spirit of the whole society I’ve been dragging out my armor, garb and gear and digging out old pictures. I’ll be posting them here as I scan them since most of them stem form the days before Digital Cameras.

In the meantime, I visited the SCA main site and sadly discovered a couple of broken links.  Before they disappear into the Ether I’m collecting them from the wayback machine and posting them here (see the ‘Pages’ links to the right). They’re amusing, informative and give some good insight into why this whole thing is so appealing written by people who lived it (as opposed to the reporters view).

What is the SCA? The Society for Creative Anachronism is a recreationist society unlike any other. They relive, recreate the best of the medieval times (no, not the theatrical venture) with honor and best intentions at heart. There are reams and reams of pages out there which I won’t regurgitate here. The official definition and best summary can be found at the SCA website here. My favorite take:

Members of the SCA study and take part in a variety of activities, including combat, archery, equestrian activities, costuming, cooking, metalwork, woodworking, music, dance, calligraphy, fiber arts, and much more. If it was done in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, odds are you’ll find someone in the SCA interested in recreating it.

What makes the SCA different from a Humanities 101 class is the active participation in the learning process. To learn about the clothing of the period, you research it, then sew and wear it yourself. To learn about combat, you put on armor (which you may have built yourself) and learn how to defeat your opponent. To learn brewing, you make (and sample!) your own wines, meads and beers.

You will frequently hear SCA participants describe the SCA as recreating the Middle Ages “as they ought to have been.” In some ways this is true – we choose to use indoor plumbing, heated halls, and sewing machines. In the dead of winter we have more to eat than King’s venison, salt pork and dried tubers. However, a better description is that we selectively recreate the culture, choosing elements of the culture that interest and attract us.

I’ll post more once I’m done digging through the pictures and seeing what remnants of garb I can salvage. Fortunately, Wifey can sneeze and garb appears. Once the SCAdians find that out there’ll be lineups down our driveway

www.skraelingalthing.com - Ottawa SCA

www.sca.org - Society for Creative Anacronism

This is  a start