Category: Appearances

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Highland Games Weekend – September 8 – 9

This weekend is the Scottish Highland Games weekend at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We have a lot of interesting demonstrations lined up:

11am – spice making demonstration, learn how to make Garam Masala, Curry, and Ras El Hanout

12:30pm – Scotch Eggs and Shortbread

2pm – History of Spices and their uses

4pm – Haggis (yes, I will be making haggis from scratch)

5pm – seasoning your cast iron and wooden utensils.

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Royal Ale Weekend – August 25 and 26

This next weekend is the Royal Ale weekend and Alice the Cook and her assistants are focusing on the cuisine from the British Isles. 

Alice the Cook working at her wood-fired oven

 11am – Spice making demonstration – learn how to make curry, garam masala, and ras el hanout spice blends

12:30pm – Cooking demonstration:  Pasties (need I say more)

2pm – History of spices

4pm – cooking demonstration:  Bubble & Squeak and Lemon Bread Pudding

5pm – How to season your cast iron cookware and wood utensils

You can see a preview of this weekend at http://renaissancefest.com/Assets/Forms/Guest/DailyProgram_wk2.pdf.

See you this weekend!

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First Weekend Shows

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I am posting out first weekend’s show schedule.  Once the weekend shows have been decided, I will be posting it here and on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/alicethecook.

11:00am – Spice Blends lecture (learning how to make curry, garam masala, and ras el hanout in your own kitchen)

12:30pm – Cooking demonstration:  Italian Calamari with Squid Ink Pasta

2:00pm – History of spices lecture (how they were used and where did they come from)

4:00pm – Cooking demonstration: Pizza Making (history, dough making, etc.)

We are adding a 5:00pm show on seasoning your cast iron pots and wooden utensils after the first weekend, but we may be having a run through first weekend. 

Four versions of our self-produced cookbooks and a limited number of our hard-cover cookbook will be for sale.  FOr a limited time, we will be selling our 2011 souvineer cookbook that contains all of the recipes we demonstrated last year at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.  We have plenty of room for seating and shade to enjoy. We hope to see you there!

 

 

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Wrap Up

I haven’t blogged lately due to other forces in my life.  But here is a summary of all that has been going on:

  1. Successfully wrapped up a Kickstarter campaign and exceeded the goal by 7%.  The campaign was to generate funds to get a portable wood-fired oven.  The oven has been ordered through Woodland Stoves and Fireplaces and should arrive in the next week or so.  We will be documenting the camp set up including installing the oven in August.
  2. Because the Kickstarter campaign was so successful, I have begun distributing the prizes.  Last night the $5 and $10 pledges were prepared and will be mailed tonight.  This weekend, I will be preparing the $20, $25, and $50 pledge rewards.   I’ve also ordered the hardcover books for the high rewards. 
  3. My house smells so good from all of the spice making I have been doing.  The majority of it was for the Kickstart campaign, but I’ve also been testing new recipes.  Spices blends are not developed in minutes, but in hours.  The last batch of 10 garam masala and 8 curry took my two and a half hours.
  4. This next week, I will be a guest lecturer at the Medieval Minnesota Camp.  There, I will be teaching the history of spices, spice blends, and medicinal uses of spices over the years.  Each lecture is an hour long. 
  5. I have a big event on July 21, but I cannot announce it until after the event.  Once done, I plan on posting photo and information. 
  6. Gearing up for the new season of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN.  This will be my 29th year our there and my 13th year as Alice the Cook.  We have a lot of fun recipes to demonstrate.  Also as a note, I will be briefly changing characters (and costumes) for another show out there – Human Combat Chess.  I have been cast as the black side lead and you can see me perform as someone other than Alice (if you wish). 
  7. In October, I will be teaching Community Education classes for Saint Paul Public Schools.  I will be teaching on October 9 – History of Spices, November 1 – Exploring Spice Blends, and November 15 – Gifts from the Kitchen.  Once the registration information is available, I will post it here. 

As you can see, I’ve been rather busy.  Once the Kickstarter awards go out, I will be able to focus more on this website.  I know for a fact that most of you visit for the recipes.