Since our week of false spring, with highs in the 70s, is over and winter has returned to the Carolinas for the MLK holiday weekend, and with another shot of cold air due on Tuesday (with highs in the low 40s), I thought this would be a fun post.
In keeping with the recipes posted earlier in my blog for my colonial American novel, The Seahawk’s Sanctuary, I have tried to find medieval recipes that would appeal to modern tastes for my newly released novel, The Lion’s Lair. As you can imagine, these are difficult to find and the medieval idea of acceptable food preparation practices would probably send most of us running to the ER with food poisoning. One such example is skinning a peacock – while keeping the feathers attached to the skin and intact – stuffing and cooking the meat (probably by boiling) – then putting the cooked carcass back into the raw skin and feathers for presentation. And while eel pie may sound yummy to some… I think I’ll pass.
In The Lion’s Lair, my main female character, Katriona, is partial to mead, so when I ran across these relatively easy recipes for mead, I thought they would be a perfect way to make a connection with the medieval time period. Or I believe there are some specialty alcoholic beverage stores that carry mead.
So, for the adventurous, here we go –
MEAD
4 pounds Raisins 1 Lemon
1/4 ounce Nutmeg 1 quart Honey
1/2 ounce Cinnamon 2 1/2 gallons distilled Water
1/2 cup Rose Water
Put raisins through a food chopper. Add the ground spices and lemon, cut in small pieces. Stir in water and honey, cover, and let stand four days, stirring each day. Syphon off the clear liquid, add rose water, and store in jars or bottles. Leave caps slightly loose.
Rose Water
Make your own, or go to Amazon and buy a bottle. http://www.amazon.com/Cortas-Rose-Water-10-oz/dp/B000LQL9M6
Make certain the rose petals have not been sprayed with any chemicals.
Yield: 2 cups
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
1 packed cup of rose petals, rinsed
2 cups distilled boiling water
Place rose petals in bowl with a lid. Pour boiling water over the petals. Cover with lid and let the petals steep until it has reached room temperature.
Strain off the rose water. Place rose water in a glass jar and store in the refrigerator for up to a month.
METHAGLIN (A Traditional Mead)
1 quart Honey 1/2 ounce Ginger
6 quarts Water 1 1/8 tsp. Rapid-rise Yeast
Lemon, Cinnamon stick, Raisins
Mix the honey and water, and ginger, and boil until the amount is reduced by a third. When cooled, put in a jar together with the yeast, which has been dissolved in a little water. Let stand three days. Syphon it off and place in jars or bottles. Put in each a small piece of lemon, a small piece of cinnamon stick, and two or three raisins. Leave caps slightly loose and wait a fortnight (2 weeks) before drinking.
GOOD LUCK!
A Lowcountry Colonial Romance. 
A Medieval Historical Romance.
Recap of the SC Bookfest
First of all, HUGS and THANKS go to Shari Stauch of Where Writers Win for inviting me to participate in this prestigious literary event and treating us to dinner on Saturday night. A wonderful time was had by all!
The authors in the WWW booth, and others that could not attend, have been very fortunate to have Shari teach us many savvy social networking skills as well as website maintenance, while her associate, Kendra Haskins, developed gorgeous individual webpages for many of us. Shari’s current mission is to take talented fledgling authors under her wing and teach us to fly by navigating through and connecting with a plethora of social sites. And while she professes to cut us loose after the contract is fulfilled, we authors know we can always email her for help or advice, for Shari has her fingers on the pulse of the current unpredictable and rapidly changing field of writing and publishing.
The authors present and/or represented at the WWW booth were: newly published Priscilla Whitaker – Mr Blue, and Kat Varn with her soon to be released novel – Ameera Unveiled. A wide scope of genres were available at the WWW booth: Karla Telega – Box of Rocks and I Never Drove a Bulldozer, Deb Mangolt – Drink Wine and Giggle, McKendree (Mike) Long – No Good Like It Is and Dog Soldier Moon, Jacqueline Gum – Confessions of a Corporate Slut, Fred Fields – How Short Hitting, Bad Golfers Break 90 All the Time, Millie West was debuting her “hot off the presses” new release – Catherine’s Cross as well as The Cast Net, and last but certainly not least, Shari, who we sometimes forget is an author in her own right – Pool Player’s Edge and Precision Pool.
I met a many wonderful people at the book festival and wish to send a thank you out to everyone for all the very pleasant and memorable experiences… Most of the independent authors I spoke with are committed to learning the craft and producing quality work and sincerely hope that fair and honest representation of indie authors by more of the publishing companies is in the near future. Ultimately, I believe, this will be a great benefit to readers worldwide as a larger scope of good books are made available for their reading pleasure.
There was one author in particular, across the aisle from us who had, I thought, a stunning booth. His name is Rick Veal and he was debuting his first novel, The Master of Whitehall. This novel is a modern-day vampire story that takes place in Charleston, SC. Mr. Veal bought a copy of Seahawk’s Sanctuary from me at the book festival, and to my delight he posted a wonderful review on Amazon this past weekend. Thank you so much! I’m so pleased you enjoyed it!
I wish to thank The State newspaper for their online coverage of the festival and to their photographer in particular for trying to take pictures of all of the authors with their books. (I’m # 28) And a special thank you goes out to the Columbia Star for featuring a picture of some of us in the WWW booth. Whooohooo….
Many thanks to Don & Fran Bush for purchasing copies of Seahawk’s Sanctuary to place in Booklovers Bookstore, to author, Cheryl Nugent – The Light from Maggie’s View, for purchasing copies of of both of my novels, and to everyone who came out and spent their hard-earned money to purchase books. Happy reading to all… It was a wonderful weekend and I had a great time!
Phew, I do believe this post has more links than all of my others combined. If I have left anyone out, it was purely accidental. Please contact me and I will make certain to include you and your book(s) as soon as possible.