Serving Breakfast For Less Than $1

OK so when out in nature everyone loves a hearty breakfast.  Just because you want to eat well doesn't mean that you need to break the bank, in fact you might be shocked at how inexpensive a good breakfast can be.

The key is buying wholesale at a restaurant supply company, I use Restaurant Depot.  To use it you will need a business that deals with food, like a restaurant or a catering company.  Provided that you can show them documentation that shows you have a business you're golden.

As a cash and carry, Restaurant Depot doesn't do a credit check, you pay with a credit card or cash as you exit the store.  The store is basically a Home Depot sized warehouse but it's filled with just about everything a standard restaurant would need at low low prices.  Here's how my breakfast breaks down:

Medium Eggs - 1 case (15 dozen) $16.53 = 9 cents per egg
Pork Breakfast Sausage, 80 pieces (10lbs) $16.00 = 20 cents per patty
Pancake Mix, 5 lbs $6.70, makes something like 60 pancakes = 11 cents per pancake
Coffee, 34 ounces, ground = $7.55 makes 300 cups of coffee = 3 cents per cup

So a breakfast like this:

Actually only costs 60 cents or 63 cents with a cup of coffee.

The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

If your bread comes pre-sliced, in a plastic bag, from a store that sells everything from meat to floor cleaner, it's not likely very good bread.  For good bread you can either make it yourself or if you are extremely lucky, be near a good baker that can provide you with some nice fresh loafs.  So my answer to "the greatest thing since sliced bread" simply this: Real, hand made bread, decidedly not pre-sliced.

Eventually I will write a post about making bread but for now let me just say that well made bread by a dedicated baker is often hard to beat for the casual home cook.  Some say it's the they have better ovens (they do), better flour (they do) or better yeast (they do) but that doesn't mean that you cannot make exceptional bread provided you take time to understand how to make it well and practice often.

For now let me just sing the praises of my new favorite bakery in Massachusetts - Maison Villatte (267 Main St Falmouth, MA 02540 (774) 255-1855.  Even though my home is 50 miles away, I will be making pilgimages every so often for their

Now I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend of his that this was the a totally authentic French bakery so I woke up early Saturday morning to check it out.  I knew I was on the right path when I saw the sign: "Boulangerie" (Bread)  Pâtisserie (pastery)

AND the line at 7:30am was this long!

Though I have excellent vision with such a long line and so many breads on display I wasn't able to read the descriptions and weigh all my options till I was right up front.

All the way to the left was a massive kitchen perhaps 3 times the front of the place with bakers in tall hats methodically  putting and taking things out of the oven. 2 people took orders while one or two more replenished the ham and cheese croissants. I purchased 2 ham and cheese loafs $4.95 each, 2 batards $3.95 each, two chocolate croissants and one massive crusty sourdough loaf that was about a 3 pounds. The large loaf was a steal at just about 10 bucks.

I could say more but let me just let the pictures do the talking:

Cooking for a crowd, ounces, pints, quarts, and gallons

So like most of the people in the world I grew up with the Metric System which means absolutely nothing when it comes to cooking for a crowd.  For most people that grew up in the USA, everyone knows 2 cups in a pint, 2 pints in a quart, and 4 quarts in a gallon.  OK but have you ever Googled how many cups are in a quart? Or searched for how many cups are in a gallon?  Well if you are trying to cook for a LARPing crowd and don't want to take out your cell phone, use this handy chart that I have created:

So I've been hired by a band of mercenaries...

So I have been hired by The Company of the Red Sash, a group of mercenaries, to be their in game chef after I was "downsized" from my imaginary job as cook at the The Grey Shield Tavern.  Here's the first menu I have created for the group:

Food poisioning should not be part of the experience

Here are my basic rules for food prep safety.  More information can be found on www.foodsafety.gov

When preparing food for anyone it is critical that basic food safety is observed. Equally important is food allergy awareness. Failure to pay attention to safe food preparation or food allergens can result in customers becoming very ill and in some cases can even result in death. Each year 100,000 people are hospitalized due to food poisoning.

TO START

If illness or injury prevents you, you must not prepare food:

1) DO NOT PREPARE FOOD IF YOU HAVE A COLD, FEVER OR COUGH

2) DO NOT PREPARE FOOD IF YOU HAVE AN OPEN CUT OR SORE ON YOUR HANDS

WHERE TO BUY FOOD

Only use food from reliable, professional and safe sources

BEFORE YOU HANDLE FOOD

In order to keep bacteria out of food:

3) WASH HANDS WITH HOT SOAP AND WATER

4) WEAR A HEAD COVERING TO PREVENT HAIR FROM FALLING INTO FOOD

5) CLEAN WITH HOT SOAP AND WATER, ALL CUTTING BOARDS AND UTENSILSWHEN YOU PREPARE & COOK FOOD

In order to kill any bacteria:

6) THROUGHLY WASH OFF ANY DIRT FROM FRESH PRODUCE / VEGETABLES

7) DO NOT USE UTENSILS OR BOARDS THAT TOUCH RAW MEATS IN CONTACT WITH COOKED FOOD OR RAW VEGETABLES

8) WHEN PREPARING RAW MEATS, WORK IN BATCHES TO KEEP MEAT COLD WITH THE BULK COLD IN REFRIGERATION

9) COOK FOOD TO A SAFE INTERNAL TEMPERATURE (SEE CHART) AND REST TIME

10) DO NOT SERVE FOOD FROM CANS THAT ARE SEVERELY DENTED OR BULGING

WHEN YOU SERVE FOOD

In order to keep bacteria from growing:

8) KEEP COLD FOODS COLD

9) KEEP HOT FOODS AT 145 DEGREES

10) DO NOT TOUCH PREPARED FOOD WITH BARE HANDS, USE UTENSILS OR GLOVES

WHEN YOU STORE FOOD

In order to keep food safe:

11) KEEP RAW FOOD AWAY FROM COOKED FOOD TO AVOID POSSIBLE CROSS CONTAMINATION

12) COOL HOT FOODS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

13) SECURE FOOD TO PREVENT VERMIN FROM COMING INTO CONTACT WITH IT

ALLERGY AWARENESS

Be aware of all ingredients in your cooking and inform customers of allergens if any:

14) COMMON ALLERGENS IN ORDER OF PRIORITY: NUTS (TREE AND GROUND), SHELLFISH, FISH, GLUTEN, EGGS, SOY, AND LACTOSE

Have Grill, Will Travel

On of the biggest problems with trying to replicate the look of cooking from the 15th century is well... just about everything.  If you are doing the whole cook it outdoors thing, you can't just haul in a Weber grill, propane stove or some other modern luxury.  While not necessarily authentic to Europe, this Civil War replica portable grill is something I picked up recently from Graysberg Forge, he has a store on Etsy.

Totally something a hammer weielding blacksmith could put together and look it dissembles!

Yup looking forward to trying this out, might even be big enough to roast a sheep over....

We're going to get medieval on your cooking

It's happening everywhere, your friends and neighbors are watching movies like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. They are deep into reading the Game of Thrones Series or more likely they fanatically watch it on HBO. Sometimes they may even go to a medieval themed fair, watching jugglers while gnawing on an oversized turkey leg. And a small but growing group of them are beginning to LARP (Live Action Role Playing).

Made infamous in the comedy Role Models in 2008 LARPing conjures images of geeks holding court in costume at local diners and bashing each other with swords made from pipe insulation and duct tape. Fortunately new improvements in props (swords, shields and armor) have vastly changed this hobby from geek to chic. Thanks to extremely realistic prop weaponry, most players could walk onto the Green Dragon Pub in and fit right in.

What has been lacking is in the cuisine. This is where I introduce myself as your humble host of this blog whose goal is to take LARP cooking to being as in game as much as possible in terms of preparation, look and in especially taste. If it’s not delicious we’re not making it here.