No grill for us this weekend. We attend an SCA (Society for Creative Ananchronism) event called Panteria, located in central Vermont. We get to eat foods from recipes from the Middle Ages ;) Their menu is online, but some of them are hard to say what exactly what they are, and we won't really know until we sit down to eat, but it's always good, yummy food :) Also bringing some mead to wash that food down too ;)

That said, I've only really celebrated Memorial Day a few times, since I'm a native of Canada ;) When we actually celebrated it, my in-laws introduced me to this interesting concoction called "S'mores"...Seriously, before 2000, I had *never* heard of S'mores before XD They're not bad, but Hershey's chocolate seems to be getting sweeter and sweeter, and seems to hurt my teeth >.< BBQ chicken is always good, along with BBQ'ed cobs of corn too :) We've never had Memorial Day at home, always at my in-laws. My poor BBQ has, unfortunately, rusted up due to not using it >.<

Macaroni salad and potato salad is awesome stuffs! Again, one oddity I thought was weird and had never heard of, was that people tend to make their potato salads with pickle juice O.o No one in my family ever did that, and it tasted just fine...the potato salads I've had here...might take some getting used to with the pickly-taste to it >.>

I love SCA tucker, I've cooked a couple of dishes myself including plum lamb leg roast, mushroom and onion sauce and globe garlic in a thick milk broth. I must admit miss those days but finances canned most of my SCA stuff. I hope you have a great day. *hugs*

OMG all of those things sound wonderful! O.O Do you have these recipes handy? I've love to give them a try sometime :)

This is a little rough and just from memory

Roast Leg of Lamb with Fruit

Lamb Leg (approximately 2kg)
700g - 1kg Fresh or stewed plums of your choice (I prefer to use stewed plums)
1 onion (finely diced)
1-2 cloves of garlic (fine dice)
Optional: 1 chilli (seeds removed and fine dice)
Spices – 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg
A little oil or lard (lard would be traditional)

Place a little oil or lard in roasting pan or large fry pan (I use a big family fry pan), begin on a medium high heat or 200ºC oven for the first 20 minutes.
Mix fruit, onion, garlic, chilli (optional) and spices
Coat this mixture onto the top of the lamb roast. (I sometimes just put the frozen product on and add the rest once it is partially cooked)
Ideally put a cover or foil over the top after the first 20 minutes then reduce oven temp to 150ºC – 170ºC or medium for the fry pan
Regularly baste your meat with the fruit and juices.
Depending on the size of your roast you will need to let it cook slowly for 1-2 hours possibly more if it’s a real big one. Use a standard roasting guide to help work out the time.
When the meat is done, carefully remove it and set aside to rest for 10 minutes
With the remaining juices you can either thicken with cornflour or cheat a little with a bit of gravy mix – you may need to add a little extra water and or spice or seasoning to taste. I sometimes add a little honey, salt and pepper to give the gravy extra depth. Choose your favourite method.

As an added side if you don’t wish to make gravy: cut some circles from some rolled out shortcrust pastry. Using a cockle baking tray (this is like a muffin pan only shallow dips rather than deep ones but you can use a muffin tray) EG: http://www.almondart.com/shop/info_33423.html place a little of the fruit mix in and bake at 180ºC for about 10 minutes or until the pastry edges are brown and serve these next to your roast meat as little savoury tarts.




Note:
Traditionally meats were often cooked with fruits, honey, spices and or herbs. They also would use wines, spirits and beers to add extra flavours.

On the subject of plums, stewed or preserved plums would have been SCA traditional and used in the off seasons when plums were not available. In our modern world canned fruit will work and may be cheaper. I stewed plums from my tree and froze them then use them with meats or desserts as I choose. The roast concept will work with most stone fruits including nectarine, peaches, cherries and apricots.

I'll need to check up on the others if I can find them.

Mmmm, that sounds soooooo good (I *love* lamb!) I'll need to try this sometime :) I also have a recipe for Verte Sauce for lamb too, a nice white wine mint sauce :)

When I made the marinade for the pork loin for Feast of Fools, I made a red wine marinade: 2 cups of sweet red wine, 3 large spoonfuls of brown sugar, various herbs and spices (from the top of my head, I put in grains of paradise, rosemary...and I think nutmeg and cloves, and a large spoonful of white vinegar, and one cinnamon stick. I boiled it over the stove until the brown sugar melted in, and took it off the stove to let cool completely. Then I stabbed some holes into the loin and put that and the marinade in a large ziploc baggie and let it sit in the fridge over night and for a good portion of the following day. When we brought it to the site to cook it, we strained out all the chunky bits from the marinade (don't want to eat the grains of paradise or a solid cinnamon stick! LOL!) but kept the liquid part of the marinade, and we added raisins. Seared the outside of the meat and put it in the cooking dish along with the marinade and we based it every so often. That pork turned out sooooooo yummy and so tender...my gosh, that was a good roast! =D

This is the essence of the mushroom sauce but you sautee finely chopped onion (until they go clear) in the butter before adding in the mushrooms

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4398414/

I hope you enjoy your memorial day. Its not something in Australia. I'll make sure to think of and light a candle for my grandfather, father and brother who though they have all passed on all served in some form and in my grandfather's case he served with American soldiers too. *hugs*

Most of the relatives i am close enough too to care about are kinda only reachable by ouija board.