Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

I need a Riversdale icon.

One thing that is NOT on this year's list of Things To Do is sew up a wardrobe of JASNA or Riversdale Kitchen Guild outfits. So I went to Jas Townsend (www.jas-townsend.com) and sprang for the cheater Ladies Costume Outfit and country cap with the idea of donating the bodice to my rennfaire wardrobe and cover the top with a short gown.

The question, of course, was "can I wash that thing?" considering that it will come home covered in smoke.

Well, they arrived today. I liked the look of the cap, but the ruffle in the back was kind of poking my neck. And the XXXL was HUGE! So I figured I had nothing to lose - so into the washer *and dryer* they went, on the hottest settings I have.

Everything still fits... but now it's pretty much shrunk to perfection. The ruffle of the (now slightly green) cap has lifted by a vital half-inch, while the awning-like gown is now pretty much just the right size. If I wear the drawstring at my natural waist, the skirt just clears the ground; if I move it up under my tits regency-style, the skirt is also hiked, but not inappropriately for a servant.

On the inside all of the seams are finished, although the finishing on the chemise part is a very quick zig-zag that looks hand-done. Also, the chemise fabric feels like a particularly stiff sheet, although the skirt is softer and flowing.

(The bodice is far too large, and taking it in will require unpicking the lining where I need to put in a dart. Not too much effort, although likely more than I'll bother with this year.)

I've gone ahead an ordered another set, this time in burgandy, and a new cap to turn ever-so-slightly red. I want to replace the drawstrings with elastic to give me vital range of motion around a live fire and hot cast iron, but that's the only other effort I'll need to make.

Also, the outfit will be a fine cheater for the rennfaire as well. A bodice would be nice, but all that would be required to make it faire-worthy is a belt, and possibly an overskirt. Two working outfits (kitchen guild and rennfaire) was well worth my $$!

And if, if the fullness of time, that stiff sheet material ever bothers me, there's plenty of skirt to detach.

AND now I don't fear washing it, although I won't use hot water and a dryer again!

Today was my first go as a member of the Riversdale Kitchen Guild, a group that does historical cooking demonstrations at Riversdale mansion.

As I'm getting over the con crud (my never-fail panacea failed!) and I was out late Ben-festing* last night, I'm like to keel over right now. As I was the only other Guild member aside from the woman running it, it wasn't the best opportunity to have gone in civvies and said "I'm really just up to sitting attentively in the corner."

But no one came to see our demonstration of how to cook garden cuttings in the 1812 manner, so it didn't matter what I wore. On the plus side, it also meant that we got to eat every bit of the food. Health laws mean we can't give samples away, but we do have to leave bits out for people to see. Instead, we stuffed our faces and talked to each other.

What we did was:
- Start the hearth fire. This involved not just setting the fire, but snooping around the grounds to see what kindling sticks may have been knocked down by the storm of a few nights ago.

- Pull out of garden/scrape/destem/wash/chop (pick as necessary): carrots, parsnips, mushrooms, and kale for the barley and greens soup (the mushrooms came from the store; we do not go hunting those!); spinach for the florentine; and the asperagus.

- Cut and toast (with toasting fork, of course) slices of bread and butter for us

- Pre-heat the dutch oven with coals above and below

- Put the asparagus in a clay pan, cover it with butter melted in a pippin, and put it to roast in the dutch oven

- Accidentally knock down the soup while taking it off the crane to stir; swear a bit, check to see no-one was looking, scrape up the food that hadn't hit the hearth, add water, and put it back to cook

- Eat buttery asparagus on fresh toast that had been dipped in the buttery asparagus and try not to make piggy noises

- Saute the spinach in an iron pan on a spider, poke dents in it and overcook poached eggs in it

- Chat

- Discuss cooking and kitchens at Williamsburg, wild-catching yeast to make bread and look up the stuff we didn't recognize in the garden on my smartphone

- Eat the soup, decide it needed some form of spice**

- Eat the florentine.

- Clean up the dishes in the modern kitchen, scrub off the table, sweep the hearth, bank/kill the fire, put leftovers in the hidden tupperware, head home.

- Throw all the smoky clothes in the hamper and take a shower. Eye up the woodlot in the back yard, as oak is prime for making cooking coals

- Type it up for LJ and consider pricing dutch ovens and toasting forks



*I described it at 221BCon as "Five women in a basement watching Benedict Cumberbatch and trying not to lick the TV." There is also a huge potluck dinner and an ever-more-elaborate cake

**Don't make that face; it had been hot enough long enough to be sterile. Bland, but sterile.

Last night was a little break from my usual reality. (Although for those interested in my personal soap opera: Jose is taking the mulch away and has promised to get me walking-stick branches from other oaks he cuts, guaranteed lightning struck. It's a sideways way of making right, but he pointed out that mine is hardly the first tree like that he sees in a week. Also, I took most of the mystery books to the Book Thing because TBH why pay me to buy what can be gotten in paperback at any store, or probably a sample downloaded in ebook for free? I will, however, be listing the unique books, signed books, and the signed unique books when things settle down a bit.)

Anyway - when you want inexpensive local entertainment, you can't go wrong with Riversdale Mansion, which hosted a "Gothick Evening" aka "Riversdale House Museum's Historical Whodunit."

There were 6 or 7 teams of four people (fandance and I were lumped in with a charming German woman and her American daughter) and it went like this: Rosalie Calvert (actual owner of Riversdale) had invited all of us to a dessert party. After much chatter at the high table, the ladies left while the men had their port (single-gender teams had figure that one out for themselves); after the groups reunited there was a little country dancing in the ballroom (single gender teams flipped another coin). But what is this? When Genevieve Verrat went to get her boorish brother out of the salon -- he refused to dance with anyone not of the French blood, y'see -- he was dead! With a brandy decanter by his head and a month worth of laudanum gone from Mrs Harper's medicine basket!

Was it:
-- Mrs. Harper, who had the laudanum and who was seen giving Pierre citric acid drafts for his headache?
-- Genevieve, whose dowry was being spent to pay Pierre's debts?
-- Timothy Dodson*, obviously in love with Genevieve but told directly by Pierre that he wasn't good enough?
-- Captain Dashwood, who has a crush on Genevieve, or his lady wife, who hasn't noticed... or has she? And what of this upsetting letter from their son?

Our hostess, of course, was above suspicion and her husband was apparently missing in action. (We had a writeup for him but Rosalie handwaved his absence first thing.)

There were verbal clues in the various gossipings, physical clues of papers left "accidentally" about** and we could talk to anyone. We'd been given little notebooks and pencils, although to tell you the truth I mostly wrote down the lines that made me laugh:

"It takes our coachman three and a half hours to bring us from the Federal City.*** Including the ditch. He never misses the ditch."
"My dear, this is 1805! You have rights!"
"I am as healthy as a horse. [pause] A well-bred horse."

Nobody caught up on the vital clue, and only one team picked the right killer. But a good time (and a good nosh) was had by all and we all went away with the steps to a new square dance and a little souvenir magnifying glass. I hear the waiting list was quite long, so if we all keep stum about whodunit they can run that one again, and I lobbied for more to the woman who wrote this one (she played a servant so that she could run around keeping an eye on everything.) Well worth the very reasonable price of admission, which was a mere $25 for locals and $10 more for nonlocals -- still a bargain considering that two of the winning team were from Phoenix, Arizona!



*Yeah, I got Pavlovian every time I heard his name
**Each team could take one. I sort of wish I'd nicked our team's so I could make 'em into a collage
***Washington DC, Now about 35 minutes away by car.

I need a Riversdale icon. I'm going to be spending more and more time there; it's close, it's interesting, it's not very expensive. The trifecta of frugal fun.

Last night was The Art of Cooking Made Seasonal and Historic, wherein they had a tour of the mansion and kitchen garden of heirloom plants, we could see cooks at work in the kitchen (the original one; we were kept well away from the modern added one!), and there were appetizers on the grounds followed by a meal inside. It ended with a gift bag including bunches of fresh-cut thyme and rosemary, 4 cloves of heirloom garlic, 2 baking pears, and (for them that wanted it; I didn't) a chunk of horseradish, all grown on the grounds.

However, fair warning - as I type this up, "historic" is a wandering term, as many of these recipes post-date the early 1800s by a large margin.

Although there was a similar event slated for spring that I let slip by, they kept repeating that this was only the second in this series of events, started last fall. Something apparently happened to the spring luncheon, although the cook was telling us how they'd made strawberry ice cream (in a long copper tube that you stick into ice and twist and twist and twist - not even a crank ice cream maker yet.)

Now, before I delve into the recipes, fair warning: the ones with actual notations are written in the exact manner of the time, so you're on your own for a lot of the measurements. I've estimated where I can.

( Herbed Cheese Spread )


( Spiced Cabbage )


( Beef-Steak and Ale Pie )


( Roasted Veg )


( Stuffed Eggplant )


( Swiss Chard )


( Double Corn Bread )


They skipped the raspberry jam because it went wrong, and I'm going to skip the Ground Cherry parfaits & Stewed Huckleberries on the basis that none of us can get 'em. There was a stellar squash souffle that was a last minute addition and thus I don't have the recipe for that. (I was always going to post that one when I got my mitts on it.) So I'll end with:

( Dessert Biscuits )

When time permits - read "the house is renovated" - I plan on joining the Riversdale Kitchen Guild.

Today was the Riversdale Regency Ladies' Day event - seven eventful hours at a local museum (this area is lousy with Regency/Colonial era houses turned into museums).

People came from all over the area - special shoutout to author Janet Mullany (who at one point let us in on her take in the paranormal Jane Austen anthology coming out next year. Miss Austen is getting quite the paranormal workout these days!) Another attendee - I don't know if she wants her name in LJ - was celebrating her birthday.

Riversdale is the Regency-era home built by the Calvert family, mostly overseen by Rosalie Calvert, whose many letters to her Belgian family survive and have been published. (One of the side conversations was over the very unusual name of the docent, who came from Antwerp just as Rosalie had. "I'm Flemish," the docent explained.

"You call yourself Flemish and not Belgian?"

"Oh, yes, dear!"

( We started with candying flowers. )

( Then we made perfume. )

The highlight of the day was the special presentation on hairstyles and embellishments by Stacy Hampton ( Sources, bibliography, websites, and instructions under cut. )

Luncheon consisted of pumpkin soup, turkey smoked sausage, corn muffins, locally churned butter, and 3 kinds of pickles made from beans, cucumbers, and cabbage grown on site.

We next had our choices of making a commonplace book - basically a scrapbook (one enterprising woman started a scrapbook of that day itself; it made me a bit sorry I've tossed the menu and program from A Taste of Amontillado) or making cards with flowers grown and pressed on site.

After that, we made herbal sashets. (The Russian sage looked pretty but over time, the scent's starting to get to me.)

Final event was to make scones and cupcake icing for the final tea (the cupcakes would also be decorated with the morning's candied pansies. ( The rest of the menu was... )

On the way out, we were each given two potted pansies, two hyacinth bulbs, and two tulip bulbs.

A very long day - it started at 10 and I walked back into the house at 5 - but a pleasant one. Apparently last year they did cosmetics. I'll keep an eye out for next year... and next year I'll be properly garbed. (They are offering a "Make a Regency Dress in a Weekend" event in January.)