Sunday, March 11th - A return to the Middle Ages

Hanging out at Lakeside

Saturday was a pretty relaxed day. When the kids were done breakfast (baked banana donuts and fruit salad)  we just hung around and then went over to the beach. It was a fairly pleasant day, with -1' temperatures but it was colder at the shore. We had a great time running and playing on the sand. We took pictures and ventured out onto the ice (but cautiously).
On the way home we tried to find another place for sliding but without much luck. We thought the road past the lot on Five Houses Road might be a good choice but it wasn't steep enough and I think the snow had just gotten a little too soft. So then we headed over to the Fort Augustus Playground. After sliding around on the ice and playing on the equipment we headed for home. Everyone decided that the hill in front of Grandma's house was the best spot after all.

After we got home made panini sandwiches and hot chocolate. Then it was time to start prepping James' medieval feast. The menu he had planned went something like this:

• Pan fried brined fish
• Goat Stew served in bread bowls
• Roast leg of lamb with roast potatoes and carrots
• Cheese wafers and apple slices

It took a lot of chef to prep all those veggies

There was lots of help to prep the stew. It included chunks of carrots, parsnips, celery, turnips, onion and garlic, pan seared goat meat and some stewed tomatoes.

Adding the seared goat to the stew pot

Once everything was cut up and ready, it was put into a clay baker, soaked in cold water and then put into a cold oven to simmer.

While the stew was cooking we hollowed out the bread bowls for the stew,






When it was close to being done, we put the carrots and potatoes in the bottom of a pan and the leg of lamb on top.

The cod being pan fried

Once that was almost ready, we pan fried the fish and served it on wooden boards (no glass dishes allowed). One exception was the ceramic tankards for the ale (served mixed with Beer, which we were told was quite authentic). On more than one occasion through out the prep, we commented that this was a  classic example of  "a little knowledge being a dangerous thing".  We were also required to eat entirely by candle light - something that didn't quite go over so well with our youngest diner.




The fish was very salty (as we expected it would be) but we managed to eat it anyway. Once you got used to the saltiness it wasn't so bad.

The finished stew in a bread bowl

The stew was very good although Patti would have preferred it without the goat meat. It wasn't her favorite. It was served in a bread bowl and the bowl was Tristen's favorite part of that dish.

The roast leg of lamb and veggies

The lamb and vegetables was probably the favorite. Everyone seemed to like that one.

Presentation was everything?

The final course was something called Cheese
Wafers - a recipe that James had copied out of the book he had read. It was a plain dough made simply with eggs, flour and a bit of salt. In retrospect it might have been good boiled like pasta. It was meant to be fried in a pan until golden and then topped with a piece of cheese until the cheese melted. The wafer part was very doughy but we managed to eat it. If you combined it with a piece of apple it wasn't really too bad.



All in all it was a really interesting evening. We sat at the table for over 2 hours and it created some lasting memories!